Driving Disaster
by celrock
Summary: Zack moves back to Yucaipa, California in the middle of his tenth grade year to venture on a road trip with his buddies, Tommy and Chuckie to attend the Broadway Boys concert, but an accident occurs, that will change Tommy's life forever. My first story to officially kick off AGU, The High School Years.
1. Chapter 1, Prologue

Driving Disaster

Summary: Zack moves back to Yucaipa, California in the middle of his tenth grade year to venture on a road trip with his buddies, Tommy and Chuckie, but an accident occurs, that will change Tommy's life forever. My first story to officially kick off AGU, The High School Years.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters from Rugrats + AGU, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize, unless otherwise stated in future author's notes, as since we're entering territory unexplored by the original Rugrats and AGU creaters, chances are there'll be several OC's created by yours truly and others. I should also point out, that there's one thing different from the original AGU series. In my version of the story, Charlotte, Angelica's mom never quit her job at the corperation she's been working at for years, but rather, during Angelica's senior year, her assistant Jonathan is planning on retiring, so Charlotte is busy looking for a new assistant to replace him.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Zack POV

It was Wednesday, January 23, 2027. I was riding in the passenger seat of my aunt's driverless van, as we continued to drive in the direction of Yucaipa, California. It had been nearly five years since my friends and I had buried prized posessions of ours and pledged to be soul brothers and sisters forever, and I disappeared to Wheeling, West Virginia when my aunt got a job at the local radio station there, Fly 95.5. For me though, Wheeling was nothing but dull ville, and a torturous 5 years of middle school and the beginning of high school that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. If I wasn't being beaten up by the school bully, I was home sick in bed, and I could only recall two times when I got the opportunity to see my best friends in the whole wide world, better known to all of you out there as the adorable Rugrats, of course, now all grown up, or, that's what we thought of ourselves anyway.

During my early middle school years, I'd peak at Tommy's youtube channel, to see if he put up any new videos. I saw how Chuckie thought Z was a trouble maker when he was only collecting stuff for a fund raiser, and the cops brought better stuff than he did. Tommy recorded the whole thing so Chuckie could prove a point to Kimi, only to learn he was mistaken for what he thought of Z, and thanks to uploading it to his youtube channel, well, I saw the whole thing. I also knew that Tommy was in Hebrew school, as he sent me a picture of his girlfriend Rachel at the time, who sadly, moved away, but it didn't bother Tommy, even if the rest of the gang felt he should be more upset about it, I was too far away to do anything, so I just shrugged it off when they kept contacting me about the whole thing over instant messenger. I tried to tell them to let Tommy deal with Rachel's moving away in his own way, but that's all I could do. But seeing that Tommy was in Hebrew school, I knew what would be coming around the corner. Sure enough, at sometime in early 2025, I received two invitations in the mail. One was inviting me and my aunt to Tommy's barmitsfa, which would be happening in May, and the other was from Kimi, inviting me to her eighth grade graduation on June 18, 2025.

Now you should all know that Kimi and I had been secretly talking to one another late at night, and I say secretly, as sometime after Rachel left, Tommy and Kimi started dating, and Kimi even sent me a picture of the carving, TPKF, which made my heart sink, as I truly had feelings for Kimi, but I would find out when I went to Tommy's barmitsfa the truth. I had to prepare myself for the worst, after all, my original intensions was to tell Kimi how I felt about her when we attended that Emmica concert back in April of 2022, but then I moved, ruining that plan before it even got underway. I decided then and there, to just call the whole thing off when I went to visit everybody for Tommy's barmitsfa, but fait had other plans for me.

Flashback to May of 2025

My aunt and I flew out to California on the weekend of Tommy's barmitsfa. So as to not interfere with plans, my aunt and I stayed at the Finster's over the weekend, me staying in Chuckie's room, and the two of us had quite the blast, at our weekend long sleepover. The first night I was there, we lay awake in bed for a while, catching up.

"So, how goes the adventures of Tom and Chuck?" I asked Chuckie jokingly.

"It's more like the adventures of… and Chuck." Chuckie replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well ever since Tommy started vigorously studying after school with the rabbi at his sinnagog for his barmitsfa, it's as if I, Phil, Lil, and even his girlfriend Kimi and his brother Dil have become invisible to him." Chuckie replied with a sigh, turning over on his bed to face me.

"Awe, I'm sorry to hear that, but that would explain why I hadn't received a phone call, I M, or seen any new youtube videos posted on Tommy's channel lately." I said.

"Yeah, I'm just thankful I have Nicole to keep me in line. Don't know what I'd do without her." Said Chuckie, as he got out of bed, reached into his nightstand drawer, and pulled out a picture of a brunette girl with long hair, green eyes, and wearing the most beautiful pink dress. Standing next to her was Chuckie, dressed in a lovely tuxedo.

"This photo was taken on our first date, the seventh grade Valentine's Day dance last year." Said Chuckie, showing me the picture.

He then went on to tell me about how he met Nicole, back in the sixth grade. Feeling too embarrassed and nervous to approach her, he disguised himself to be some foreign exchange student named Chongo, but later on, when trying to switch between the two characters at the Java Lava, he got caught in the act, making Nicole very angry that Chuckie would lie to her like that. It took a lot of smoothies and quality friendly time spent together as the real Chuckie for her to finally gain his trust, and finally, things were going good for them when she asked him to the Valentine's Day dance in February of 2024, their seventh grade year.

"So, can I meet your lovely queen of the universe?" I asked with a cheepish grin.

"Sure! I've invited her to accompany me to Tommy's barmitsfa tomorrow, so you'll get to meet her then." Chuckie replied, as we rolled over and went to sleep.

Well I met her the next day alright, she was very sweet! I also went inside the sinnagog to see it packed! Several people were there, aunts, uncles, cousins, tons of family had come up to see Tommy's barmitsfa. I met Tommy's uncle Ben and aunt Elaine, as well as several relatives of his who came up from Iowa. A rather large, obese boy walked up to me and took my hand.

"I'm Emmit." The boy said.

"Hi, I'm Zack, I'm a good friend of Tommy's and I'm visiting from out of town for his barmitsfa." I replied.

"Ah, so you know Pickles eh?" Said Emmit.

I nodded.

"Listen kid, I'm hungry. Got anything good to eat?" Emmit asked.

"No, but I'm sure there'll be lots of yummy stuff to eat after the ceremony." I replied.

Emmit went on to tell me how he first met Pickles, I mean, Tommy a long time ago at some family reunion. Angelica had given them all the impression that they'd be going home with different mommies and daddies, so they went through the farm to look for their parents, and discovered that Angelica was wrong in the end. It was no surprise, I had known Angelica a lot more closely than this cousin of Tommy's did, but I wasn't going to say anything.

A little while later, we all took our seats. By this time, I had found Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil, and we had all caught up on our lives. A few minutes later, the rabbi quieted us down, and Tommy approached the torah at the front of the sinnagog. He looked so handsome, standing proud, pointing his stick at the text in the torah, as due to the sacredness of the scrolls, it couldn't be touched by human hands. He stood tall, wearing a black tuxedo, and a top his purple hair, which looked no different from the last time I saw him in person in April of 2022, he wore a white yommica.

Tommy spoke the words of the tora in such fluent Hebrew you'd think he was from Israel or something. He said the blessings and well, that's all I really remember of the actual ceremony.

"Movvotosh." We all said in unison as the ceremony endede, and we got up from our seats to head into another room, where lots of yummy food was had, and a party began.

At some point during the party, Tommy approached me, still wearing his tuxedo, but the yommica was gone.

"Hey Zack, glad to see you made it!" Tommy said, smiling at me.

"Great to see you too! And, congratulations pal." I said, giving Tommy a hug.

"Hey, sorry I haven't gotten to hang out, I've just been really busy preparing for this. Why don't we go hang out tomorrow, just like we use to." Said Tommy.

"That would be great, except, I'm leaving to head back to Wheeling tomorrow. My plane takes off at 2." I said with a froun.

"That's ok, how about breakfast at the Java Lava before you head out of town." Replied Tommy.

"Sounds good to me." I said, smiling at him.

Later, everyone was in a circle, dancing and singing some Hebrew song I didn't recognize. I ended up next to Kimi at this point, and we were holding hands.

"Hey Zack, come with me." Kimi whispered in my ear.

"But Kimi, we'll miss the party." I whispered back.

"But this party is so boring!" She whispered to me.

"Oh ok, let's go then." I said, breaking away from the circle, as Kimi and I ran out of the sinnagog and headed off to some allie I didn't recognize somewhere down the street.

We got there, the allie was deserted. It was a bright sunny afternoon, the sun shown overhead, as Kimi and I embraced, and gazed for a long while into one another's eyes. After several minutes of silence, Kimi finally spoke up.

"Listen, Zack, I have something to tell you." Kimi said.

"Really? What is it?" I asked.

"Now you can't tell Tommy this, he'll be very upset, but, but…" Kimi trailed off.

"Come on Kimi, we go way back, you can tell me anything." I said encouragingly.

"The truth is, I love you." Kimi said.

"What!" I said shockingly.

"No, really Zack, I love you, but I also love Tommy too. This is so complicated, but I love both of you, and I can't choose." Said Kimi.

I took a deep breath before responding.

"Wow, I never realized you felt this way about me. Well, I have to be honest, I've been in love with you since before I moved away. I was going to tell you at that Emmica concert, and then, well, I moved, and it ruined the whole plan." I said.

"Well, who says it has to be ruined. Why don't we kiss and find out if we're meant for one another." Said Kimi.

"But won't this upset Tommy? He is after all, one of my best friends." I asked.

"Look, you have to promise me that anything that goes on between us remains top secret. Nobody besides our families can find out. Got it?" Kimi said.

"Only if you promise to do the same." I said.

We shook on it, and a few minutes later, I had my first kiss, as Kimi and I kissed one another, the kiss lasted several minutes, and well, it was incredible!

The next morning though, we were all hanging out at the Java Lava like it was old times. Me sitting next to Tommy and Chuckie, with Kimi, Phil and Lil across the way, and Dil at one end of the table, and Susie at the other. We chit chatted about several things, like nothing had changed, joking around, and it was as if to the rest of the gang, nothing extraordinary had happened to anyone of us the previous day. As we sat there, eating our begals and doughnuts and sipping our smoothies, Kimi reached for my hand beneath the table, and handed me a small piece of paper. She reached across and whispered in my ear.

"Don't read this till you get on the plane to head home." Kimi said in my ear.

So I placed the piece of paper into my pants pocket, saving it for later.

Glancing at my watch, I saw it was nearly 11:30 AM, my aunt was probably about ready for us to leave, as Kira would be dropping us off at the airport.

"Well guys, I've gotta go, but it was great seeing you all again, and Tommy, congratulations again on your barmitsfa." I said, as we all gave one another a group hug before heading out of the Java Lava in our separate directions towards home.

Later, once in the air on the airplane, I read the note that Kimi had given me earlier that day. It read KF plus ZW equals love. I read it over several times, as a smile broke out across my face, but at the same time, a bit of concern was in the back of my mind. This had obviously, created a secret love triangle, and I only hoped at that very moment, that this wouldn't effect mine and Tommy's friendship down the road.

End of barmitsfa flashback

So then, to prove just how special Kimi was to me, I kept talking to her after that, we'd talk late at night when chances were that Tommy wouldn't find out. Eventually, I invited her to come spend the summer with me between our eighth and ninth grade year of school, as I would be heading up for their eighth grade graduation, something I sadly didn't have the pleasure of experiencing, since in Wheeling, middle school and high school were entertwined, overruled by the worst principal known to man, Principal Greenhorn. Nonetheless, school let out for me at Memorial Day weekend of 2025, which gave me plenty of time to prepare for Kimi's visit. It would only be a couple of more weeks before I left to see her, and her brothers and friends graduate from middle school, and move on to high school.

Flashback to June 18, 2025

"I now present, the class, of 2025." Said Principal Pangborn, as he stepped aside from a podium, and the graduates dressed in yellow caps and gowns crossed the stage.

"I nearly fell asleep in my chair. So thankful that long speech was over." I thought to myself, as the audience in the middle school auditorium clapped and the eighth graders, walked across the stage to get their deplomas. I could only imagine what principal Greenhorn would have to say in a few years when I finally graduated as a senior in high school, but I'd worry about that then. I was too busy, keeping my focus on one particular girl in the front row, waiting to have her name called, and go up on stage.

"Kimi Finster." Boomed Principal Pangborn from the microphone, as the beautiful goddess of Kimi, walked up on stage to get her deploma. My how beautiful she looked in her yellow cap and gown, it was like the princess of whales was just inches away from me.

Of course, while in my mind, I was drooling for Kimi, I had to keep a straight face, especially since for this particular visit, I was sleeping at Tommy and Dil's house for that particular weekend. Dil almost blew it when he suggested that the three of us play Spin the Bottle one night, and I put a stop to that immediately by explaining to him that this game might be a bit dangerous, and seeing that he was only going into the eighth grade, maybe we should wait to play that until we were all in high school together. Tommy agreed, and we moved on to something else.

Sometime later, after Tommy's graduation party the following day, Kimi and I were in the allie where we had kissed over a month ago, looking at the stars and discussing our plans for how we would get her to Wheeling secretly. Of course, her parents and Chuckie knew of the plan, but she told them that they were all sworn to secrecy, unless some dier medical emergency with her were to come up. We were all in agreement, and so, the following day when I left to go back home with my aunt, Kimi joined us on the plane, and on the entire plane ride back, Kimi slept, resting her head on my shoulder.

Later, she and I were strolling through the streets of Wheeling, when I just happened to ask her this question.

"So, what does the gang back home think you're up to?" I asked.

"Don't worry Zack, Tommy, Phil, Lil, Dil, Angelica, Susie, and even my brother Chuckie has agreed to go along with the whole plan that I'm off in Japan, visiting my maternal grandparents and doing a summer internship at a sushi bar." Replied Kimi, gazing into my eyes.

"Well, they're not going to believe a word of this plan if you come back empty handed of dough." I replied.

"Woops? Hadn't thought about that." Kimi said.

"No worries, I've got an idea." I said with a grin, as Kimi and I ran down the street till we got to a small frozen yogurt place called What's the Scoop. Outside, there was a sign stating that they were hiring, so Kimi and I walked in, and spoke with the manager.

He normally wouldn't hire either one of us until we had completed our freshman year of high school, but since Kimi was an out of town guest looking to make a little bit of extra cash, he hired her, and Kimi did an excellent job that summer, rolling in a ton of dough, which she saved every penny of. She just agreed she would wait a few days to show her friends the money she made, to make it look like she made it to a bank to get her currency transferred from Japanese money to American money, and I thought that was a good plan.

Well the rest of our summer together was lovely. We attended my family's annual fourth of July reunion and picnic, as well as my maternal grandmother's birthday party at the end of July, and Kimi and I did have several romantic nights together in bed, sleeping together. Yes people, we did it, but we made sure to be protected, cuz you know, we didn't want anybody back home, especially anybody with purple hair who constantly had a love for filming, right along with the girl of my dreams, to start suspecting anything. Also Kimi kept her cell phone turned off, and would only turn it on and check in with her parents once a day, so her dad Chaz in particular, wouldn't worry about her. But then, on the last night of Kimi's visit in late August, well, that's when it happened.

No worries, no baby boomers here, but it was our last night together. We were lying in bed together, completely naked, and I was on top of Kimi, kissing every part of her body. You know, her brests, her neck, the whole anchilotta. You know how it is when you're madly in love with a woman, you've gotta taste all of her sweet spots. Oh I tasted and kissed them all right, only to give her a love bite on the neck, better known by the common folks as, a hicky.

I looked at the mark I had made on Kimi's neck, and my face turned a deep red. I was dead, super dead. I knew as soon as Tommy saw this, he'd get suspicious and start asking questions. So I snapped out of it, and started to form a plan with Kimi.

"Ok Kimi, you'd better think up something right now." I snapped, shaking her by the shoulders.

"Zack, would you relax? I'll just tell everybody I fell on a rusty nail. If I sound convincing enough, Tommy and the rest of the gang won't suspect a thing." Kimi replied.

I felt relieved, knowing that I could send my secret lover back to her other lover, knowing the love triangle would remain a secret for now.

End of eighth grade and summer visit Flashback

So now, as I ride along in my aunt's van, on what felt like the longest day of my life, as we approached the exit to get off for Yucaipa, California, I pulled out my iPhone and updated my Facebook status. I wrote the following. Returning to my stomping grounds for good after being away for five years. I just hope the adventures of Tom, Chuck, and Zack can pick up where they left off, as if nothing has ever changed.

Of course, deep down in my mind, I was hoping that my secret love with Kimi wasn't going to ruin things between me and Tom, and that eventually, Kimi would finally make up her mind of who to be with, as I knew once I was back there for good, the love triangle would not remain a secret for too much longer. Just then, I was interrupted from my thoughts when my aunt spoke up.

"Isn't it wonderful Zack? You don't have to be in miserable Wheeling, West Virginia anymore, and you'll get to graduate from high school with your life long friends, like you've always wanted." Said aunt Celeste.

"Yeah." I replied.

"And since I've got my job back at Radio Disney, after the manager having to fire the person who took my place, and not being able to find a suitable replacement, well, I can pretty much promise you we'll be back in Yucaipa, for a very long time." Continued my aunt Celeste with a smile, as she stroked my short blond hair.

"Approaching exit 49, Yucaipa, California." Said the talking GPS system on my aunt's driverless van.

I felt happy to be home, as I glanced down at my phone to see it had grown rather late at night, as it was nearly 9:30 at night by the time we got off the highway and turned off into Yucaipa, but I didn't care. I was just, happy to be home, and couldn't wait til the following day, when I'd be starting at Yucaipa high school, for the exciting adventures to come.

End of Zack POV

And, this concludes the prologue. Our actual story will begin, in the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2, The Reunion

Chapter 2, The Reunion

Zack POV

It was Thursday, January 24, 2027. It was very early in the morning as I road up to Yucaipa High on my trusty Reptar skateboard that my friends had given me a few years ago prior to my moving away. But I didn't care if I was in the tenth grade. I still road on it, and Reptar and I went everywhere together. As soon as I approached the school, I picked up the skateboard and carried it in under my arm, as I went to the main office, signed in, and received my locker assignment and class schedule from secretary Judy. I went and found my locker assignment, number 217, as I passed Kimi in the hallway. While we didn't get to speak to one another, I shot her a half smile passing through, thankful that at that moment, Tommy was nowhere in site.

I put my coat away in my locker and headed off to first period, which was band. I passed by Susie Carmichael in the hallway. My how she looked so grown up, now a senior in high school.

"Well hey Susie." I said passing by.

"Zachary?" She asked surprisingly.

"Yep, that's me. I just moved back to California for good." I said with a smile.

"Welcome back Zack!" Susie said.

"Thank you. So, where are you off to? I'm off to band with Mister Deadly." I asked.

"Wow, our first periods are close together. I have chorus with Miss Palmtree, formerly known as Mrs. Abuse." Said Susie, as the two of us headed through the math wing and down to the hallway that led to the chorus room and band room.

I only knew it was the math wing by a sign on the wall as we approached the hallway.

"Well, have a good time at chorus." I said to Susie, as we got to her door before mine.

"Thanks." She said with a smile, as she went through the door to the chorus room, closing it behind her.

I then approached the band room, to be greeted by a small white poodle, who's name tag red, Puey.

"Awe, well hello there!" I said happily, as Puey licked my hand.

Just then, a tall man with wild red hair opened the door to the band room. I swear he looked like what Chuckie might look like in about twenty years, minus the square framed glasses.

"Welcome to the house of fools." Said Mister Deadly, the band director.

I laughed and introduced myself, explaining who I was and that I played trombone at my old school in Wheeling, but that I had to give the instrument back to the school upon leaving because it was a loan. No matter, Mister Deadly found me a rental, and we got underway with our practice. Band went smoothly, and Mister Deadly saw how well I did, he asked if I played any other instruments. I told him how I took piano lessons while in Wheeling, and played keyboard in the jazz band my seventh grade year in Wheeling at Wellington Middle slash High School.

"Jazz band meets Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at third period, with random rehearsals on Mondays after school, and we've been looking for a replacement keyboard player since our current one recently broke his finger." Said Mister Deadly, as I was putting my trombone up after class.

"I'll show up tomorrow." I said with a smile, as I left band and headed for my second class.

My second class was biology with Mister CromoZones, a tall man with no hair on the top of his head, and a blond beard. I went and took my seet on a stool at one of the long lab tables, next to a boy with spike green hair, and a black boy who looked similarly built to Tommy, with black hair styled just like Tommy's purple hair. He wore a white shirt with yellow long sleeves, blue jeans, and black shoes.

"Hey, you look vaguely rfamiliar to me." Said the boy with green hair.

Then it hit me. That was Z. I hadn't seen him since we were in kindergarten, minus the youtube video I saw on Tommy's channel, but decided to not make mention of that video, in case Z wouldn't be too happy to learn that he had put that up there.

"Yep, it's Zack. You're not, Z, are you?" I asked.

"Why yes, I am!" Replied Z.

"And I'm Hector." Replied the black boy that resembled Tommy.

"Nice to meet you. You know, you too look familiar." I said.

"Don't tell me, I look like the president of the Yucaipa High Film Club, Mister Tommy Pickles. Oh I know this really well. We sat together in Geometry last year in ninth grade, and our teacher, Mrs. Speala was always getting us mixed up." Replied Hector.

I chuckled.

"But you should know Zack, Tommy and I go way back. We met originally at the doctor's office as infants. I think we were both getting our booster shots the same day, and about a year later, I played with him and his younger brother at the park. And that was the last time we saw one another until last year." Continued Hector as Mister CromoZones came by and handed me a biology book.

"Settle down class, it's time to begin our lab, and today, we'll be dissecting frogs." Said Mister CromoZones.

I didn't like the idea of dissecting, but went along with it, seeing that this was biology, and I took chemistry last year at Wellington, and was in biology prior to moving here. I had already covered frog dissecting, so knew it like the back of my hand, since I was in AP biology in Wheeling, but sadly, I couldn't get into any of the AP courses upon moving back to California, the price you pay for changing high schools in the middle of the year. Nonetheless, biology was relatively uneventful, as Z, Hector and I completed our lab work, and took down notes on what we saw inside the frog. I was there for two periods, the normal second period class and the one day a week third period lab, and after it was over, I told Z and Hector goodbye, and went off in search of my English class.

As I walked through the halls heading for my English class, I felt kind of sad that I hadn't run into any of my friends, and then, I passed by a classroom, and saw an English teacher talking with Tommy in the hallway.

"Now Thomas." Said the English teacher.

"Don't call me that." Tommy snapped.

"Thomas, don't forget, your essay on McBeth is due next Friday. I want it typed, double spaced, and no films. Just because you're President of the Film club doesn't mean you get special treatment." Continued the English teacher, reprimanding Tommy.

"Yes mam." Tommy groaned, as he trudged away from the English teacher, back turned towards me, my not even noticing him.

Before I could say anything, he had disappeared down a flight of stairs. I then attended my English class with Mrs. PorkLoin and my fifth period Algebra class with Mister Toben. Finally, lunch couldn't come soon enough, and I was surely hoping for some catch up time with my good old friends. I was heading to my locker when I bumped into two familiar faces, one with dark purple hair and the other, with uncontrollable red hair, purple square framed glasses, but no more braces. I spotted Tommy and Chuckie just chatting away near what had to be their lockers, so I approached them smiling, ready to strike up some conversation.

"Well well well, how goes the adventures of Tom and Chuck?" I asked with a smile as I approached them.

"Zachary?" Tommy and Chuckie asked in unison, and for the first time, I noticed one of the sad truths of growing up. I failed to notice this when I heard Tommy talking to his English teacher earlier, but yes, now, at our age of 15 and 16, our young child like voices, were no more. Tommy, sounded so deep, he could almost be the next Tim Allan with purple hair, and Chuckie, well, he sounded so much like his dad. And I should admit, my voice was in the baratone range. My aunt said I sounded a lot like my father at that age. They obviously had changed during their freshman year and beginning of our sofamore year, as at Tommy's barmitsfa, he didn't sound too different from when I saw him in sixth grade. No matter, it was only their voices, and that's only part of a person.

"Yep guys, Zack is back." I said with a smile.

"So, ready to go get some lunch?" I asked, heading in what I thought was the direction of the cafeteria.

"You're not going to the cafeteria are you?" Tommy asked.

"Well, yeah! Isn't that where everyone eats lunch?" I asked.

"Only if you wanna eat cardboard." Said Chuckie.

"Oh, got ya. So what are we gonna do then?" I asked.

"Same thing we do everyday. Or at least Chuckie and I have been doing since we started tenth grade and got the same lunch. Eat off campus at Burger Queen." Said Tommy with a smile.

"Now Tommy, you know we're gonna be late for French class at sixth period." Said Chuckie.

"Now Chuckie, we go over this every day. I promise, we won't be late. You worry too much." Said Tommy.

"Oh wow, you're in French class? I'm taking French too! With Lisa Labooche." I said with a smile.

"Hey, Tommy and I have her too! Though I'm not sure how long we'll have her. She's due with a baby any day now, and will have to go on maternity leave." Said Chuckie.

"Even better, a substitute. We can goof off our one period we have together." I said, getting into my locker to pull out my Reptar skateboard.

"This will for sure get us back in time for class." I said.

"You still ride around on that?" Tommy asked.

"There are just, some things, you never grow out of." I said with a grin.

"Well you can ride it, but I won't be caught dead being seen by anybody around here on that." Snapped Tommy.

"Fine, fine, I'll put it back." I said, tossing the skateboard back into my locker, and the three of us, leaving the school and walking down the street.

We passed by the Java Lava on the way there.

"Say, do we have to go to Burger Queen? Why don't we just stop off at the Java Lava, our usual hang out." I said.

"Uh, do you want my parents questioning us?" Chuckie said.

"Um, good point." I said.

The three of us continued to walk down the sidewalk till we approached Burger Queen, we got in line, which was rather long.

"Wow, this place is popular!" I exclaimed, looking at the long line.

"Yeah, it's where all the cool kids come." Replied Tommy, as we inched our way through the line, approaching the counter.

"Welcome to Burger Queen, may I take your order?" Said a lady with brown hair wearing a turquoise vest behind the counter.

"Yes mam, I'll have the number seven, the spicy chicken sandwich with extra mayo, and a ceaser side salad." Said Tommy.

"I'll have the junior wapper, hold the onions." Said Chuckie.

"And, let's see, I'd like an order of jumbo chicken tenders, and sweet potato fries." I said.

We got our orders, went up to the drink machine and got ourselves some drinks, I swung by the condiments counter and picked up a small cup of barbeque sauce, and we found a table and sat down, and caught up on our lives.

"So Zack, what brings you back here?" Chuckie asked, taking out his retainer and taking a bite of his wapper.

"My aunt got her old job back, so I get to return to my stomping grounds for good, away from dull ville Wheeling." I said, taking a bite of my first chicken tender.

"So, will Phil, Lil, Kimi, and Dil be joining us? I figure Susie probably eats with the other seniors." I said.

"Nope, afraid Dil can't come because freshman are only allowed to eat off campus two days a week, and besides, Dil usually comes here with his best pals, Lance and Ryan, and they get their lunch to go and take it back to school, where they eat it at whatever his sixth period class is, I forget at the moment." Said Tommy.

"Lance? Ryan? They must have moved here after I disappeared." I said.

"Yeah, they moved here when Dil was in eighth grade, and the three of them started hanging out. Ryan Shy moved here from Massachusetts, and Lance Gibbler moved here from New York. Ryan, like you Zack, he lives with his aunt, and while he looks kind of like a younger version of Z, except he fancies smoking pot and doing drugs, convincing my brother to start smoking cigarettes, and Lance, he's got black curly hair, and while he can irritate me sometimes, he and Dil have a lot in common, and Lance, he lives with his biological mom Lisa, who finally gained custody of her boys about two years ago, and his step dad Frank. He also has an older brother named Chris, who plays for the NBA, two older twin brothers named Justin and JC, who attend Prinston University, and then there's Lance's younger brother Joey, who attends our old middle school, although he's currently suspended, after horse playing around the hall, breaking a window in front of Mister Pangborn's office." Said Tommy.

"Goodness!" I said.

"Yeah, but you won't have to see Lance or my brother this weekend. As they have a larping trip." Said Tommy.

"Larping? And what the heck is that?" I asked.

"Oh it's stands for Live Action Role Play, and the group they're in, well, they pose as aliens or something. I tried to go along to film one of their weekends, but I sadly found out that's not allowed." Said Tommy.

"Ok so Dil doesn't join up with us sofamores for lunch. What about our friends, Phil, Lil and Kimi?" I asked.

"Sadly my sister and Phil and Lil have first lunch." Replied Chuckie.

"Huh?" I asked.

"They're in fifth period right now. Their lunch falls between fourth and fifth period, while you, Chuckie and I have second lunch, putting ours between fifth and sixth period." Replied Tommy as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"And besides, we hardly ever see Phil and Lil at school anymore, ever since Lil got into the cosmetology program, spending most of her time at the hair salon down in the basement, and Phil got into the colinary program, and is busy for much of the day, preparing food in the Long Medow room, which is the restaurant with real food, not cardboard, where faccalty and staff can eat." Said Chuckie.

"Oh, got ya." I said.

"Well, don't know about you, but my aunt gave me a really cool surprise this morning before I left for school." I said, pulling out the ticket from my wallet.

"You're going to see the Broadway Boys Live and in concert this weekend?" Said Tommy.

"Yep, and my aunt has agreed to take me too." I said.

"Tell her she doesn't need to." Said Tommy.

"Yeah after school today, Tommy and I will be heading to the D&W to take our driver's tests to get our licenses!" Said Chuckie.

"I can't wait to hit the open road and drive us to this concert, that's like two hours away from here! And, good thing too, since my mom will be away this weekend receiving a teacher of the year award for best teacher, and my dad accompanies Dil, Lance, and Phil on their larping trips, since he invents a lot of the stuff they use on those trips." Said Tommy.

"And Lil and Kimi are off to some youth group lockin at church tomorrow night. So even I get a break from my sister this weekend." Said Chuckie.

"So Tommy, does this mean you get the house to yourself?" I asked.

Tommy nodded.

"We should totally have a house party!" I said.

"Oh no not a house party." Groaned Chuckie.

"Why not?" I asked.

Flashback to November of 2025, during their Freshman year.

"And now, we are proud to present our new president of the film club, Tommy Pickles!" Said Mister Salmon, a rather large man with short brown hair.

"Thank you thank you." Said Tommy, as the club clapped and cheered him on.

Later after the club. Tommy, Phil and Lil are hanging out outside the school.

"Hey Tommy, we're so proud of you." Said Phil.

"Thanks guys." Said Tommy.

"Yeah we should totally celebrate! How about a party!" Said Lil.

"Well ok. My parents are going away for two weeks for their anniversary so Dil and I will have the house to ourselves, so I guess it's ok." Said Tommy.

Just then, Chuckie approached them.

"No nah uh. Don't you know bad things happen at house parties unsupervised?" Chuckie asked.

"Now Chuckie, we're gonna be fine. You've got nothing to worry about." Said Tommy reassuringly.

At the end of that week on Friday morning, Stu and Didi were at the kitchen table going over the rules with the boys.

"Now remember you two, Tommy is in charge." Said Didi.

"And the swimming pool in the backyard is off limits and so is the basement. Wouldn't want something to happen to one of my inventions." Said Stu.

"And, no friends over." They said simultaneously.

"Awe, why not?" Dil asked.

"Because, it's not safe for you two to be in the pool with no lifeguards around, and, well, in terms of the friends, well, ok, you can have your closest friends over for a little while, but no party." Said Stu.

Stu and Didi headed off for their trip, and Tommy and Dil invited all of their closest friends over. That night, they had a party all right. The gang was making music videos. Tommy, was in the living room, his hair died blond, and he was wearing a purple turtle neck and blue jeans, dancing on top of a coffee table, trying to imitate Carl Arts, the little brother of Nate Art of the Broadway Boys. You could say Carl Arts is a 2025 version of the famous Aaron Carter from the late 90's, early 2000's, as the Broadway Boys were a modernized version of the Backstreet Boys from way back when.

Tommy started to dance on top of the coffee table, singing the following.

"People all around you gotta

(come get it)

From the left to the right, make noise

(come get it)

Here we go now, come on

Uh uh what what

T.P.'s in the house, here we go

Come with it."

Author's Note: Those lyrics were originally taken from a famous song by Aaron Carter, bonus points to anybody who can guess the actual song, and tell me what I changed in the lyrics. Hint, I only changed two letters.

Return to text

Just as he finished singing that line, a loud crash was heard.

"Oh my gosh, I'd better go see what that was all about." Said Tommy, but he looked in the direction of the kitchen, and saw nothing.

"Hmmm, don't know what I heard. Ok, let's party!" He shouted.

Later, everyone was slow dancing to slow music, the kind one might listen to at a make out party, Tommy was wrapped so tight around Kimi, it would take the jaws of life to cut them loose, and Dil was with his new girlfriend at the time, a girl he had met in seventh grade named Cristy. Chuckie however was outside in the pool with Nicole and a bunch of other people who weren't interested in slow dancing.

Several houses over, Savanna was getting mad because she was usually the one to throw a party on Friday nights, and everybody went off to Tommy's, all because he became president of the film club, the club responsible for making DVD's of the plays and musicals put on by the drama club, also run by Mister Salmon, the theater director of Yucaipa High.

"Come on Angelica, oh captain of the wrestling team, you know you want to ttrash your cousin's party." Said Savanna with a half smile, glaring at Angelica, who was over on her couch, stuffing her face with cookies and punch.

"And why would I want to do that? I promised I wouldn't bother my cousins for once." Said Angelica.

"Because, there's nothing more fun than trashing a party, and I know several people you can hook up with to help you." Said Savanna convincingly.

Well being the evil little devil she could be, Angelica went along with this plan. So she got together everyone on the wrestling team, including the captain of the basketball team at the time, a tall black guy named Marcus, and a bunch of Savanna's friends, including some jock they called Larson, who claimed he had a fake ID, and used it at the local liquour store to pick up some Mike's hard lemonades and beers, and everybody trooped to Tommy's house, where they snuck in through the garage, unnoticed by anybody who was there, because everybody was too busy slow dancing and making out, or having a blast in the backyard, having an up all night pool party, minus the lifeguards.

Marcus convinced a few people hanging out in the kitchen to start a slip and slide contest, pouring dish soap and water all over the orange and blue checker tiled floor, making a complete mess, Larson went around, handing out cups of the alcohol, convincing everybody it was gatorade, but he wasn't fooling Tommy.

"Come on pal, it's just gatorade." Said Larson, as he handed Tommy a red plastic cup.

Tommy took a sip.

"Um, this isn't gatorade, it's beer, and how did you get in here anyway? I don't recall inviting you Larson." Said Tommy.

"Savanna and your dorky blond headed cousin told us it was an open house." Larson lied.

"Oh and you might wanna go out back, there's a pool party going on here too." Said Larson.

"What?" Tommy snapped, as he left Kimi by herself and headed towards the backyard, slipping on the soapy kitchen floor. Before he could get up, a loud crash was heard, as a rock was thrown at the kitchen window, smashing it to bits, and he heard a loud scream from Chuckie in the backyard, along with a loud splash in the pool.

Just then, the back doors opened to reveal Chuckie, his hair covered in bubble gum, and his clothes covered in gasoleen and other gunk. He was accompanied by two guys that Tommy and the rest of the gang didn't recognize.

"Carrot top geek here just trashed your pool Pickles." Said one of the unfamiliar guys, a tall, lean boy with bright blue hair.

"I did nothing of the kind you've got to believe me Tommy. I was in the pool when those guys dumped the stuff in there, really." Said Chuckie.

"I've known Chuckie forever, and he would never trash a party." Replied Tommy, who was down on his butt, trying to get up from the wet slippery floor, which also had splinters of glass from the broken window on it.

"Well maybe you should come see for yourself." Said the blue headed guy laughing.

A few minutes later, Tommy finally made it outside, to see a swimming pool, full of bubble gum, gasoline, and something green and slimy. The party was a mess all right, and not only was it finished at that point, but everyone was sent home, Tommy and Dil were grounded upon their parents return, and Tommy, Chuckie and Dil spent the next several weeks, cleaning up from the mess.

End of Flashback, Returning to present day reality, at Burger Queen

"Goodness, what a mess!" I said after Tommy and Chuckie were finished telling me the story of the house party gone bad.

"How about this, just you, me and Chuckie, tomorrow night at my place, we tell no one else." Said Tommy.

"I'm all for that." I replied.

"Chuckie, what about you?" Tommy asked.

Chuckie hesitated, and then, nodded with a smile.

We shook on it, and just then, Chuckie caught a glance of his watch.

"Oh my gosh guys, we're gonna be late! We'd better be going!" Said Chuckie, putting back in his retainer and dumping the rest of his lunch out.

The three of us sprinted back to school, but it was too late. The front doors were closed, and to my sad findings, they were locked.

"Oh great, Tommy I knew this was a bad idea, and this is like the fifth time we've been late." Groaned Chuckie.

"Don't worry guys, we'll use the secret entrance back into the school." Said Tommy.

"Oh?" I asked.

Chuckie and I followed Tommy around to the back of the school, where we found one of the fire exit doors propped open. We snuck in to find we were in a room full of desks and other assorted props.

"Ok Tommy, tell me where we are?" I asked.

"Mister Salmon's office. He always leaves his fire escape propped open." Said Tommy.

"And let me guess, he does this because you're the president of the film club, and knows you're usually late." I replied.

Tommy just nodded as we made our way out through the mess of props and other assorted junk that filled his rather messy office.

When we finally made it into the hall near the auditorium, I knew I was in an area of the school I didn't recognize, so stuck close to Tommy and Chuckie, as the three of us, headed towards our French class, which was up on the third floor.

"You know, I'm glad to be back with you guys, but the sad part about changing schools in the middle of the year is, all of the good clubs and stuff are already filled." I said.

"Why not join film club? I know it's not your thing, but you never know unless you try, and I know I can get you in. We meet Mondays after school." Said Tommy.

"I might have to miss from time to time to attend Jazz Band after school practice, but I'll come by on Monday and check it out." I said.

"Yeah and I'm really tired of how in all of our classes, the teachers are always saying, this is gonna be on the CCAS, and that is going to be on the CCAS." Said Chuckie, as we bolted up the first flight of stairs.

"What does CCAS stand for anyway?" I asked.

"CCAS stands for California Comprehensive Assessment System." Replied Tommy.

"We had to take the test in eighth grade, and I thought I would die taking that test." Said Chuckie.

"It wasn't that bad, and at least we passed." Said Tommy.

"Yeah but I hear if we don't pass the one we're taking at the end of this year in tenth grade, if we don't pass it, we won't graduate." Said Chuckie.

"Come on Chuckie, I'm sure that's just a rumor." I said.

"No Zack, it's true, if we don't pass that test, you don't get a deploma upon graduating high school, just some stupid certificate with a happy face on it stating you completed twelve grades in the school system or something." Said Tommy.

"It's dumb that's what it is." Said Chuckie.

"I'm only hearing about this for the first time, and I'm not liking it already." I said, as we continued to walk up the stairs to the second floor.

As we walked up the stairs to the third floor, a beautiful girl with blond hair wearing the latest fashions passed by me.

"Oh my gosh, that girl is beautiful!" I exclaimed.

"She may be beautiful on the outside, but she's a witch on the inside!" Said Chuckie in terror.

"Nah, she seems too nice!" I said.

"Uh, Zack, you don't wanna mess with her, she's Gloria." Said Tommy.

"Who's Gloria?" I asked.

"She's a freshman, in my brother's grade, and, she's been a nightmare to my brother ever since we were little. She's the reason Phil and Lil dropped him on his head when we were babies, making my brother, well, weird." Said Tommy.

"I hear her big sister Prudence, who Tommy and I met way before Gloria, known as the junk food kid when we were babies, is at Prinston with Lance's older brothers, Justin and JC, and the three of them currently have a love triangle going on." Said Chuckie.

"I'm guessing Angelica told you about that." I said.

"Angelica must have a different class right now that Gloria isn't in. Oh that's right, she's in our French class cuz she was tired of taking Spanish and needed one more year of foreign language in order to graduate." Said Tommy.

My stomach learched, I didn't mind being in a class with my best buds, but Angelica too? Please, oh please, just let it be over! I thought to myself.

"Anyway, Gloria is constantly competing with Angelica to take her place as captain on the wrestling team." Said Tommy.

"Since when did Angelica get into wrestling?" I asked.

"Since she started high school, the school psychologist thought it would help Angelica's self esteem, and, well, she fell in love with it!" Said Chuckie.

"Yeah but she's a senior right?" I asked.

Tommy and Chuckie nodded.

"Good, that Gloria only has to wait till September in the fall of 2027 when we're juniors, and maybe, just maybe, she can take Angelica's place after she graduates in June." I said.

"I hope so Zack, I hope so." Said Chuckie, as we reached the hall of the third floor, and walked towards our classroom.

"And what about our French class? I certainly hope for our sake it's a substitute." Continued Chuckie.

"I hope Lisa Labooche is there, I'd kind of like to meet my real teacher on my first day of school." I said.

"No worries, if there's a substitute, we won't get in trouble. Take it from me, last week, my Physics teacher was out all week, and we just watched Bill Nye the Science Guy all week. Chances are if Miss Labooche is out, we'll just watch the Dummi Bears or Reptar videos in French or something, and nobody will pay attention, or notice we were gone." Said Tommy.

"I hope you're right." Sighed Chuckie.

"Then again, I seem to recall that Miss Labooche was getting a relative to cover our class while she was out on maternity leave." Said Tommy.

"Isn't our teacher married?" I asked.

"She is, but she goes by her maden name because she got her teaching degree before she got married." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah, and Miss Labooche is from France." Said Tommy.

"Great, we're in trouble now." I thought as we approached the door of the classroom.

And when we got to our classroom, I've seen many mean looking teachers in my time at Wellington in Wheeling, but nothing like what I was confronted with. Standing before me, Tommy and Chuckie, was a tall, dark woman, with evil looking eyes, a long nose, and long black hair. She looked pretty angry, and not all that interested in being there, not to mention, preterbed that we were late to her class, and from the looks I caught a glimpse of on Tommy and Chuckie's faces, while I didn't recognize this woman, it was obvious that they recognized her right off, and not in a good way.

End of Zack POV

End of Chapter 2

Author's Notes: As you've seen from the prologue and this chapter, I've brought back some one shot Rugrats characters as teenagers. I should also point out that Gloria is an OC I created for a story that's coming up in babysmurfrock's story, Tommy Pickles: The Terrible Two's. So, while she appears in teenage form here, you'll eventually, meet her in toddler form in that story whenever it gets posted. Bonus points are also awarded to anybody who guesses who Zack, Tommy, and Chuckie's substitute French teacher is, and, if you can guess as to which band members I took the names of from for Dil's new best friend Lance, and his five brothers, Joey, Justin, JC, and Chris. I'll give you a hint. This band was popular when I was in middle school and high school, consisted of five guys, and upon breaking up in 2002, the lead went on to have a successful solo career. Anyway, feel free to read and review, and, more chapters, will be coming soon.


	3. Chapter 3, A Change in Plans

Chapter 3, A Change in Plans

Zack POV

I glared at that teacher for several minutes, before her loud, pearcing voice, broke the silence.

"What are you scoundrals doing doddling in the hallway? Come on, get inside here now!" The teacher snapped, as Tommy, Chuckieand I went and took three empty seats that were vacated. I saw Angelica in the back, and several others in their seats, doing some work in some French workbook.

"Ok you three, explain yourselves." Snapped our teacher.

"Um, excuse me mam, but who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Labooche, Miss Koko Labooche to you, I was sent here by my cousin Lisa to take over your little French class until she came back. Yeah, had to leave my comfy home in Paris just to travel to America so that that cousin of mine could have a child. Why anybody would want to have a child is beyond me, but whatever. I'm your teacher for the next two months, so I suggest you don't appear late at my class anymore." Snapped Koko.

"Look mam, I'm new to this school, just moved back here after being away for five years. I'm Zack, and my friends Tommy, Chuckie and I, we were eating lunch off campus and lost track of time. We promise, it won't happen again." I said.

"We'll see what the principal has to say about that. The three of you, to the office you go to get a tardy slip." Koko snapped, as Tommy, Chuckie and I picked up our stuff and left her classroom.

I caught a glimpse of Angelica giving us some look as we walked out of the room, but didn't buy it. The three of us, just trudged through the hallways and down the stairs to the principal's office on the first floor in silence, too shook up by how that nasty substitute teacher treated us. Now I knew that Tommy and Chuckie had gone to Paris before, and it was apparent that she recognized them, as she didn't even speak to them, of course, I did all of the talking, but I could tell Chuckie was too nervous to speak, and Tommy, well, I could tell he didn't like her either. I figured I could always ask them about the truth behind that woman when we were alone at Tommy's for our sleepover tomorrow, granted, we didn't get grounded for this. I surely was hoping the new principal wouldn't give me detention or anything, not on my first day of school back in California. Nonetheless, we approached the door to his office, and went inside.

We were face to face by a tall man, dressed in a gray suit with red hair and a red mushstash.

"Ah, Pickles, Finster, and, someone I don't recognize." Said Principal Johnson, turning his head, glancing at each one of us, like he was searching our bodies for something.

"Uh, my name is Zack, Zack Werehnberg, and today is my first day here." I said.

"Ah, nice to meet you Zack, and sorry to see you got in the middle of these two trouble makers." Said Principal Johnson apologetically.

"Awe, it's no big deal, they're my best friends. Known them since they were 2 and 3-years-old." I said.

"So, I take it your new substitute teacher, miss Koko Labooche sent you down here cuz you were late to her class. Off campus lunch again, eh Mister Pickles?" Asked principal Johnson.

Tommy nodded.

"Well, I have good news and bad news. Zack, today is your lucky day. I'll send you back to class, and let you off with a warning, since today was only your first day. But Finster and Pickles, while I'll send you two back to class, you're to report here after the final bell, and, I'm sorry, but your off campus privilages have been abolished, for the rest of the school year." Said principal Johnson.

"But why?" Chuckie asked.

Principal Johnson rummaged through a drawer out of his desk and pulled out a small little blue book, and started flipping through the pages of it until he found what he was looking for.

"It says here in the Yucaipa High hand book, that anybody who is late five times to a class for abusing the off campus lunch policy loses their privilages for the rest of the year." Said Principal Johnson.

"And Pickles, don't think that because your mother use to work here, you're gonna get special treatment." Principal Johnson continued.

I knew that Tommy's mom use to work there, and she was planning to leave and go to the private school, Saint Joseph's or to the alternative school, anywhere but where her kids were attending, as she read in some Lipchitz book of her's that working in the same school environment could be damaging on a child's psychy or something. Nonetheless, I happily was pleased that my off campus lunch privilages weren't being abolished, but sorry I'd have to dine alone for the rest of the year.

"But Mister Johnson, Chuckie and I have our driver's test after school." Said Tommy.

"Well I guess you'll have to miss it. Maybe you should have thought about that while eating your lunch at, oh, Burger Bean, or whatever that trashy place is called you teenage punks like to eat at." Said Principal Johnson with a scowl.

"It's Burger Queen." Chuckie snapped.

"Come on guys, let's head back to class." I said with a frown, as Principal Johnson handed us our tardy slips, and we headed back up to the third floor for the last twenty minutes of class at this point.

All I could hope at that moment was that there was another driver's test being offered either later in the day or tomorrow, or for sure, our plans to drive to the Broadway Boys concert on Saturday night, were ruined. We hadn't even picked out who's car we were taking, as I knew we'd probably have to borrow a car from one of their parents, since none of us had cars of our own, and sadly, I didn't even have my learner's permit yet, since in Wheeling, the driving age was 16, while here in California, it was 15, I figured Chuckie probably waited so he and Tommy could practice and test together. Nonetheless, we got back up to our class, handed Koko our tardy slips, and she handed me a workbook. I glanced up at the board to see what page we were working on, and thankful that I had already begun taking French in Wheeling, I turned to the page in my workbook and started on my assignment, not looking up until the bell rang.

"And remember class, anything you didn't finish in class, is homework, and it better be completed and on my desk at the beginning of the class tomorrow! And, no more being late to my class. Pickles, Finster, and Werehnberg, that means you." She snapped, as Tommy, Chuckie and I sprinted out of the room as fast as we could.

Once we were in the hallway, we split off in separate directions, and I headed off to my seventh period and final class of the day, World History with Mrs. Soco. All I'll say is my World History class felt like a day at the beach compared to what I just witnessed at French class, and I was thankful that French wasn't my final period of the day.

After school, I headed for home, but before I went, I stopped off at the Java Lava to tell Chaz and Kira hello, and was pleased to see that Kimi was there after school.

"Hi." I said to Kimi, giving her a half smile.

"Zack? I thought I saw you in the hall this morning before school." Said Kimi.

"Yep, that was me. Look, don't know if your brother comes here after school, but…" I said.

"Oh I know, he and Tommy are off to take their driver's test. Wish them luck for me. I'll be testing next summer, as I turned 15 after Chuckie, so couldn't officially start practicing and taking Driver's Ed until then." She said, cutting me off.

"I will." I lied. I didn't have the heart to tell her what really happened, as maybe, just maybe, if we kept the detention secret from our families, or, if they kept it secret, we'd find a way to that concert on Saturday if there wasn't another driver's test offered between now and then.

I got me my usual, a pineapple mango smoothie, and took it to go, as I didn't wanna risk opening my big mouth and ruining anything. I told Kimi I had a bunch of homework to do, which was true, as I needed to get caught up at least in the classes I was instructed to go back to a certain chapter in the books to catch up since I was joining the class ahead of everybody else, so I went home, only to find that as usual, I was alone. My aunt use to work part-time at the radio station when I was little, that's how she was able to babysit me and my friends while we were toddlers, and in preschool, but once we were in kindergarten and elementary school, going to school all day, she changed her hours, working four days a week, from 8 AM to 6 PM. I arrived home a little after 3:30, let myself in, and got to work.

Time seemed to fly by, as I quickly got through my assignments, and before I knew it, my aunt was home, and calling me in for dinner. I joined her at the kitchen table to find she had picked up Mexican pizzas for us from Taco Bell.

"So, how was your first day of school?" Aunt Celeste asked me, taking a seat across from me at the table.

I told her everything, from how my classes went, to my first time eating lunch off campus, as in Wheeling, such privilages weren't allowed, since the middle school and high school were combined, and I let her know that Tommy and Chuckie would be going to the Broadway Boys concert on Saturday too, provided we found rides, as they were suppose to take their driver's test that day, but because they were on their fifth time of being late to class, they got detention, missing it.

"Awe, well that's too bad. You know, the offer is still there, I'm happy to take you and your friends to the concert on Saturday in my driverless van." Said Aunt Celeste.

"Thanks Aunt Celeste, but we'd feel like dorks with you taking us. We're in tenth grade, nobody has their parent or guardian drive them to a concert in tenth grade." I said.

"Awe come on, you and I go way back." Said Aunt Celeste, taking another slice of pizza out of the box.

But I didn't say anything. I just finished my meal in silence and excused myself to go and give Tommy and Chuckie a call, as they should surely be home by now.

I gave Tommy's cell a call first, but it went straight to voicemail.

"The mailbox belonging to..." Said a robotic voice.

"Tommy Pickles." Said Tommy's voice, in his deep grown up voice, indicating he had recorded that sometime after he matured.

"Is full, and cannot take any messages at this time. Goodbye." Continued the robotic voicemail voice, before a click was heard, disconnecting my call.

So I rang his house, to be greeted by six rings followed by an answering machine.

"You've reached the Pickles residence. Please leave a message after the tone, and one of us will return your call as soon as we can." Said Didi's voice.

I hung up without leaving a message. Hopefully they'd discover via star 6 9 that I called and Tommy would call me back.

So then, I tried Chuckie's house. It rang three times before someone answered.

"Hello?" Said Chuckie.

"Hi Chaz, is Chuckie there?" I asked.

"Hi Zack, it's me, Chuckie." Chuckie said.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot how much you sound like your dad now. Ah the joys of growing up." I said with a sigh.

"Yeah but our voices changing is nothing, unless you're in chorus or something your Freshman year and trying to sing." Said Chuckie.

"Yeah there's that, but at least we don't go through nearly as many changes as women do." I said with a chuckle.

"Oh tell me about it. About once a month, my sister has these moody moments, and eats so much chocolate, I'm surprised she doesn't triple in weight or something." Said Chuckie.

"Now really, I didn't call to chat about girl and guy hormones. First, have you heard from Tommy? His cell phone's mailbox is full and nobody seems to be home, and, how did your driver's test go? Was there another test after your detention?" I asked.

"Oh, that's right, it's Thursday night. Tommy and his family are off at the nursing home visiting his grandparents." Said Chuckie.

He went on to tell me that Tommy's maternal and paternal grandparents weren't doing well, and were all in nursing homes now. They went to visit on Thursday nights since weekends were usually busy for everyone. Grandpa Lou even had to stop driving the school bus by the time everyone was in eighth grade, and Dil was in seventh grade, because his eye sight got too bad to drive, and while there are driverless cars and vans, driverless buses haven't made the market yet.

"Awe, that's too bad. So, what's the scoop on the whole driver's test thing?" I asked.

"Tommy and I missed the only one being offered today, and according to the people at D&W, the next one isn't until next Thursday." Said Chuckie with a sigh.

"Great, now how are we going to get to the concert on Saturday?" I asked.

"We'll have to have someone drive us." Chuckie said with a sigh.

"Well I won't be caught dead having my aunt take us, I already told her we'd look like dorks, having our parent or guardian drive us to a concert. We're in tenth grade for peak sake!" I protested.

"Yeah, and my parents are usually too busy at the Java Lava to be available for rides anymore." Said Chuckie.

"Ok, who else do we know who has their license. Let's think. Um, Susie?" I said.

"Susie won't be here this weekend. She's got All State practice. She was the only girl from our school who made the All State chorus." Said Chuckie.

"Oh wow! I bet Susie feels pretty special!" I said.

"Yeah, I'll be heading to the Los Angelas Music Center a week from Saturday to see her performance. I'm going with Phil and Lil since Tommy has to stay behind and film next weekend's three nights run of The Mystery of Edwin Drood at school." Said Chuckie.

"Oh my gosh, I wanna see that! Z is in my biology class, and he told me he's playing Edwin Drood. The play takes place for three nights, and on each night, the audience gets to vote on who they think caused the murder." I said.

"He's become good at acting since he joined drama club last year. He and Kimi were in the fall's performance of You Can't Take it with you. Z played Tony Kirby and my sister played Alice Sycamore. I'll bring the DVD to Tommy's tomorrow night." Said Chuckie.

"Awesome!" I said.

"Ok Zack, we can't ask Susie to take us Saturday. Maybe we should just forget it then." Said Chuckie.

"No way. I had to miss Emmica, even though I did enjoy her Christmas concert you got me and my aunt tickets to, but I was looking forward to spending some time with my best buds I haven't seen in forever." I said.

"Ok ok, who else could we ask to take us." Said Chuckie.

"What about that Harold guy Tommy's cousin Angelica is always hanging around with? Seems I recall they were a dating item when I attended Tommy's barmitsfa a couple of years ago." I said.

"Boy are you behind the times. Harold moved to Connecticut back in December, breaking up with Angelica, leaving her in tears at Christmas. None of us have heard from him since he moved." Said Chuckie.

"Awe, sorry to hear that, but that just gave me another idea. Provided we had an open mind." I said.

Just then, I got a call waiting beep.

"Uh Chuckie, I've got another call. I'd better let you go. See you tomorrow at lunch?" I said.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." Said Chuckie, as I clicked over to the other call.

"Hey, is Zack there?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy! Hey there!" I said with a smile.

"Hey Zack. Saw you called my house. Sorry, I wasn't home." Said Tommy.

"I know, Chuckie told me where you were. Sorry to hear your grandparents aren't doing well. And sorry to hear the driver's test didn't happen. Chuckie and I were just discussing an alternate plan to get us to that concert on Saturday night. I hear Susie can't do it, and Harold moved away. I don't know if Chuckie will go for it, though we usually convince him to go along with our plans anyway, but how about we see if Angelica can take us." I said, totally shocked at myself that I'd go that far out of my mind. I was obviously desperate if I was gonna get into a car with Angelica behind the wheel.

"That's a great idea Zack! We'll ask her tomorrow when we see her at French class." Said Tommy.

"Yeah, provided we're on time and have our homework done. I don't like that Koko lady, and really wish she wasn't our substitute teacher." I said.

"I haven't liked her since I met her 14 years ago." Said Tommy.

"Oh?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, Koko almost became Chuckie's new mom when we went to Paris when we were little." Said Tommy.

"I'm glad that didn't happen. If Koko had become Chuckie's mom, Chuckie would probably be in the custody of DSS by now." I said.

We laughed for several minutes.

"Well Tommy, it's getting late, and my aunt has a phone curfew of 10 PM on school nights." I said.

"Ok, see you tomorrow?" Said Tommy.

"Yep, and, I probably shouldn't be offering this, but since my off campus lunches haven't been abolished, I'll sneak you and Chuckie sandwiches to go if you'd like." I said.

We agreed and I hung up the phone. I finished up my French homework, and turned in for the night by about 10:30, praying that Angelica would agree to take us to that concert, and not just agree to it, but actually follow through.

This ends chapter 3. Figured I'd do a shorter chapter just, because I felt like it. So, what's gonna happen? Will Angelica agree to take them to that concert? And if she does, will she keep her promise? Or will the two with learner's permits, and we already can guess who's the likely one to get clever, is some sneaking around about to be had. You'll just have to wait, and find out, next time. Not sleeping until this story is up, so, expect more chapters to appear, throughout the rest of the night. Oh, and did you guess correct on Koko as being their substitute French teacher? Thought having an evil blast from the past come back to haunt them would make for some good drama. Ok, anyway, be looking for chapter 4, sometime within the next few hours.


	4. Chapter 4, A Plan Gone Bad

Chapter 4, A Plan Gone Bad

Zack POV

The next day, I sprinted out of school when lunch period began as soon as Mister Toben let us out of Algebra class. Since I was alone, I knew that using my Reptar skateboard would get me to and from Burger Queen quicker, so used it to my advantage. Luckily I had enough money to pay for my lunch, as well as Tommy and Chuckie's. I saw them briefly in the hall before heading to band at first period, and they agreed to pay me back that night when we were at Tommy's house. So I skated up to the drive in window, ordered the food, received the takeout bags, and raced back to school on my skateboard. I was surprised there was no line at the drive in portion of the restaurant. I guess with how crowded it gets inside with the high school kids showing up, most sensible adults know better to dine elsewhere during their lunch break at work. No matter, I got back to school with fifteen minutes of lunch left, and the doors to the front of the school were still propped open. Tommy told me he and Chuckie were planning to hang out at the library until I arrived back at school, so I went up to the second floor upon returning and went to the library. On the way there though, I saw a flyer stating that tryouts would be coming up for the musical Wicked, to contact Mister Salmon if interested. I ripped one of the pink paper flyers off the wall, and stuffed it into my backpack before I reached my final destination, the library.

"Uh, young man, we don't allow food in the library." Said the librarian, who looked up from her desk to see me walking in, with a skateboard under one arm, and three bags of food in my hand.

"But this is for my friends. You seen Tom Pickles and Chuck Finster around here?" I said.

Just then, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to find Tommy had walked up behind me.

"Just don't bring food in here again please." Continued the librarian, as Chuckie had caught up to us, and the three of us were heading out of the library, purching ourselves down on the floor in the hall against a set of vacated lockers.

"Yes mam." I said, as I closed the door of the library behind me and made my way to the lockers.

Tommy, Chuckie and I all scarfed down our food quickly. None of us were up for being late again today to Koko's class. And then, I drank my drink so fast, I let out a loud belch, sending all of us into explosive laughter.

"So, how are we gonna ask Angelica to take us to that concert?" I asked Tommy, as I knew Koko wouldn't appreciate us talking in class.

"Don't worry, I've got an idea." Said Tommy, grinning from ear to ear, the way he always did when he had a clever idea up his sleeve.

We made it to class one minute before the sixth period bell rang, and took our seats. I glanced up to see what our exercise was for today, and figured that as long as Koko was our substitute teacher, this would be the way class would continue to go until our regular French teacher came back. She took attendance, very loudly I might add, and once she was done, we began our work.

A few minutes later, I was handed a note written in Tommy's hand writing. It read, Angelica, will you be available to take us to see the Broadway Boys concert two hours away in Tacoma on Saturday?

I knew what Tommy was up to, so I passed the note to Chuckie, who sent the note around the classroom until it got to Angelica.

End of Zack POV

Angelica POV

There I was, minding my own business when I got a little note. I knew it couldn't be from Brody, the boy who was secretly interested in me, since he's not in this class. And it couldn't be from Savanna or Gloria, since neither one of them were in this class. I saw it was from my cousin. He wants a ride to that dumb concert on Saturday. The one I couldn't get tickets for, and the only reason why I would even head in that direction besides going to that concert, was to go to that bed and breakfast that Harold promised to take me to once we had been dating for two years. Well, his stupid family had to move, so he didn't get to take me. But then, I got a clever idea. I'd lie and tell them that Brody was taking me, so I'd drop them at the concert, but only if they agreed to stay the night with us, and not bother us once they arrived at the bed and breakfast after the show. I'd even get them their own room, if Pickles treated me to dinner at the seafood diner on the way, which has the best lobster bisk ever. So I took a sheet of paper out of my notebook and scribbled down the note, passing it back through the line of these other students till it reached Chuckie, even if I really wasn't up for doing this. I'd be nice to my cousin and his friends for a change, since Zack had moved back, and Tommy did work his butt off last summer to save up for his ticket, working fifty hours a week at Finster's dumb coffee shop. They'll never let me work there again after I covered for Kimi that summer she went off to Japan, between my sofamore and junior year, I left a begal in the toaster for too long, and started a fire.

End of Angelica POV

Zack POV

Eventually, a new note got passed back to me. This one was in Angelica's hand writing, and I read it to myself. It read Sure pipsqueeks, I'll take you, but I have a date with Brody on Saturday night, and we're spending the night at the bed and breakfast not far from the concert. I'll get you and your friends a room, if, you treat me to dinner at the Seafood Diner on the way, I'll settle for nothing less than their bowl of lobster bisk and a chocolate chip ice cream cake. I figured I could swing that. That is if she was actually going to keep her promise. I gave the note to Tommy, who started scribbling something else down on another piece of paper. I just hoped Koko wouldn't catch us passing notes around in class. And I was wondering who the heck was Brody anyway. Never heard of him. Before Tommy could hand me the note, Koko had obviously noticed what was going on.

"Ok class, what's going on here?" Koko asked, sounding very preterbed.

She marched up to us, and took the note from Tommy's hand.

"Awe, is this a love note for your sweetheart or something? Let's read it aloud, shall we? I'll be glad to treat you to dinner, thanks for taking us on Saturday. Awe, I'm touched. Now get back to work!" Snapped Koko, as she threw the piece of paper across the room.

A bunch of the other students started laughing, as Tommy's face turned red, and Angelica dived and grabbed the piece of paper. Ok, well, we had a ride, I just hope Angelica wouldn't forget.

I finished my workbook pages, went to seventh period, and after school, ran home to grab my overnight stuff for Tommy's, and headed off to his house. I got there to find a red van in the driveway, that Stu and Dil were packing stuff into.

"Well hello Stu, it's Zack." I said.

"Oh hi Zack, Tommy told me yesterday you had moved back into town. It's nice to see you again!" He said with a smile.

"Nice to see you too. Anyway, hope you and Dil have fun larping this weekend." I said.

"Thanks." Said Stu, tossing in the last few bags and a cooler into the back of the red van.

"Is that everything?" A woman asked from the driver's seat of the van.

"Yes Lisa, that's everything." Said Stu, as he went in and road shotgun, Dil climbing into the back behind him. The van pulled away, leaving the driveway deserted. I went up to the front door and rang the doorbell several times, but no one answered. Either Tommy wasn't home, or, perhaps he and Chuckie were in the backyard. So I went around to the backyard and peered over the fence to find Tommy and Chuckie were playing some stupid game, where they were kicking a soccer ball into the pool, and diving in after it to grab it. Maybe we're too old for childish games like that, but at that moment, I didn't care. We were here to have a good time, so I called out to Tommy and Chuckie, and Tommy, dripping wet, let me in.

The backyard had changed a lot since I was last there, with a swimming pool taking up a good portion of the yard, and there was a zipline going into the pool from a treehouse.

"Hey, what's the zipline for?" I asked.

"Don't ask." Said Chuckie.

I just changed into my bathing suit, and until the sun set, we went into the pool. It was fun getting to go swimming in January, something we'd never be able to do in Wheeling, where there was snow on the ground at this time of year. Also their pool was heated, so it was ok to go in while it was winter. We played Marco Polo till the sun set, and afterwards, we went inside, where I ordered us some pizza from Dominos.

I ordered me a peperoni and anchovy pizza. Call me strange, but I love anchovies on my pizza.

"Hey Chuckie, did you remember to bring the DVD of the fall play?" I asked.

"Yep." Said Chuckie, as he went over to turn on the TV in Tommy's living room, Tommy and I, spread out on the floor with three boxes of pizza in front of us, pigging out.

Chuckie turned on the TV to see a weather report on the screen.

"There is a winter weather advisory out for northern California. It's rare we get snow storms here, so please take precaution while driving this weekend." Said the weather reporter as Chuckie loaded the DVD into the player, causing the TV to switch to the DVD as it began to play.

We watched the play of You Can't Take it With you, and I couldn't stop looking at Kimi the entire time, she did a beautiful job on her role as Alice Sycamore. I noticed at one point, I was drooling, and put a stop to it, hoping Tommy didn't notice. I knew Kimi and I would have to break off our love triangle sooner or later, but figured I'd wait till after the concert to ruin either Kimi, or Tommy's life. I wanted one last weekend of fun with my best buds, before all hell broke loose.

The play ended, and by this time, we were stuffed on pizza.

"So, what do you guys wanna do now?" Tommy asked.

"We could order the new Adventure Squad movie on Pay-Per-View." I said.

"Adventure Squad? Chuckie and I haven't watched that in years! We use to play that when we were little. Recall I use to talk to pants or something." Said Tommy.

"Uh, yeah, and I drove the van." Chuckie added.

"As long as we don't look like dorks, I really don't care." I said, turning to the Pay-Per-View channel on the TV, and using the on screen menu to order our movie, which would be starting in thirty minutes.

Anything to take my mind off of Kimi. We watched the movie, and I recall at some point, we fell asleep, awakening to static at sometime around 3 in the morning. I awoke to this, and quietly switched off the TV, careful to not wake up Tommy and Chuckie, who had fallen asleep on either side of the couch, and I had been in a recliner.

The next morning, we all awoke, and I got the brilliant idea to make everyone omlets, as I had learned how to make them in the ninth grade cooking class I had taken at school in Wheeling. Luckily, Tommy's mom had all of the makings in the kitchen, so we got to work.

Later, we were having sodas and 4 cheese daritos, when I happened to look up at a clock on the wall, and saw what time it was getting to be. It was nearly three in the afternoon, and I knew that Angelica should be heading over to pick us up within the next hour, if we were going to have time for dinner and make it to the concert.

"Uh, should we call Angelica, just to remind her she's our ride?" I asked.

"Don't worry Zack, Angelica wouldn't forget about us. She promised she'd drive us on her way to her and Brody's date." Said Tommy.

"Who's Brody?" I asked.

Tommy explained to me that Brody and Angelica met at some day camp when they were little. Angelica wasn't having any fun there so she hid in an outhouse, and Brody snuck her stuff like juice, cookies, comic books, and gum. He tried to sneak her ice cream, but got caught. Nonetheless, they reunited at sometime during high school. Apparently, Brody was on the wrestling team with Angelica, and had a crush on her for a while, so now that Harold was gone, maybe they were thinking of dating. I didn't care who Angelica dated, as long as it wasn't me, and as long as she didn't break her promise.

But the minutes droaned on, and soon, 3:00 turned into 4:30, and still no sign of Angelica.

"Uh, Tommy?" Asked Chuckie.

"Yes Chuckie." Replied Tommy.

"You said Angelica would be here by now! It's 4:30!" Chuckie shouted.

"Relax, she's probably just, running late." Said Tommy.

I wasn't playing around. I went over to the phone on the wall of the kitchen, and noticed that Angelica's house was the number three speed dial button. So I picked up the phone and called, only to hear several rings and then, an answering machine picked up.

"Anybody have Angelica's cell phone number?" I asked.

Tommy got out his cell and gave her a call. But he put it back into his pocket a few minutes later.

"Just tried, it went straight to voicemail." Said Tommy.

"Great, just great." Chuckie muttered.

"I knew it. Angelica forgot all about us. Well, since we're stuck here, let's play a game and pig out some more. Got anymore soda? It appears we finished up everything in here." I said.

"Yeah there's more out in the garage, I'll be right back." Said Tommy, as he headed out to the garage.

End of Zack POV

Tommy POV

I went out to the garage, and noticed my dad's blue car was there. This gave me my brilliant idea. Chuckie and I had been driving for six months, and we were ready to take our driver's test. Who says we can't drive ourselves. So I grabbed the case of soda and headed back in to tell everyone of my plan.

"Hey guys guess what?" I said.

"What!" Zack and Chuckie responded simultaneously.

"We don't need Angelica to take us to that concert. We'll take ourselves. I forgot, my dad got a ride with Lance's mom Lisa to the larping this weekend cuz Lisa was carpooling, leaving his car behind." I said eagerly.

"But Tommy, as much as I love a good scramble, you and Chuckie need your licenses before you can drive without a licensed adult in the car, and you only have your learner's permit." Zack said.

"And besides, even if we were going to do this, we don't have your dad's car keys." Added Chuckie.

Just then, I put the case of canned soda on the kitchen floor, and snuck up to my parents bedroom. I knew where my dad kept his spare set of keys, since he's always losing his. I found them in the corner of his sock drawer and headed back downstairs, showing Chuckie and Zack the car keys.

"Tommy, I really don't think we should be doing this." Said Chuckie.

"And let me point out, that this isn't the backyard and the Reptar wagon, this, is a real car and the open road! And if we were to get into an accident, who knows what will happen." Zack said.

"But I thought you wanted to have adventures like the old days, and that things would never change." I replied.

"So, you did see my Facebook status I put up on Wednesday." Said Zack.

I nodded.

"Come on guys, I'm really good, and I bet ya if we can do this trip, with no accidents and no getting caught, it will prove we're ready for our driver's test next week." I said.

"Ok Tommy, if you say so, I'm in." Chuckie sighed.

"Maybe only one half of the adventure twins has their learner's permit, but count me in too." Said Zack.

End of Tommy POV

Zack POV

I couldn't believe I was about to go along with Tommy's plan to hit the open road to go to that concert without his license, but in all the years we've ventured together, we always made it home in one piece, so figured, what the heck, maybe we were being stupid, but we'd only look stupid if we got caught. Besides, anything beat having to have my aunt take us in her driverless van, which I sat in for a good three days earlier in the week, traveling across the country from Wheeling to California. Anything to not have to ride in it again. And as for Angelica, I knew her keeping her promise was too good to be true. For all I knew, she probably went off to some party last night, and got drunk or something, passing out on somebody's couch. I had no idea if Angelica was that stupid, but she's never been the brightest bulb on the tree in my book, so, I figured this was a better plan, but while I was usually on Tommy's side, I felt more like Chuckie at this moment, hoping that nothing would go wrong.

End of Zack POV

Zack, Tommy and Chuckie got dressed in the clothes they were planning to wear to the concert, and before piling into Stu's car, Zack threw his Reptar skateboard into the trunk.

"What are you bringing that for?" Tommy asked.

"You never know when we might need Reptar to save us." Zack chuckled, as they piled into Stu's car. Zack road in back behind Tommy, who drove, and Chuckie road shotgun next to Tommy. He started up the car and backed out of the driveway, and headed down the street, as they headed off to the concert.

At some point along the road, Zack showed Chuckie the flyer he grabbed for the Wicket auditions.

"What's that?" Chuckie asked.

"This is a flyer I grabbed off the wall yesterday advertising auditions for the upcoming musical, Wicked. I'm hoping to try out for the part of Doctor Dillamond." Said Zack smiling in the rear view mirror.

"Cool! Kimi told me that she was hoping to try out for the part of Glinda. And I think she'd do a good job too." Said Tommy, smiling dreamily as his gaze disappeared from the road, towards the rear view mirror.

"Tommy, might I suggest you concentrate on your driving?" Zack asked, noticing Tommy was turning his head away from the road, as he thought about how cute Kimi would look playing the part of Glinda.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Said Chuckie, as the car continued down the turnpike at this point.

"Don't worry Chuckie, we're gonna get there just fine and nobody will know I drove with nothing but a learner's permit." Said Tommy boldly.

Just then, the sky went gray, and it started to snow. As Tommy continued to drive down the turnpike, the snow storm got worse, turning into a white out.

"Guys, I can't see!" Tommy shouted, as he continued to drive, not knowing where he was ending up.

"I think you should pull over." Chuckie shouted.

"I don't know where to pull over." Yelled Tommy.

Just then, the car slipped and swerved off the road, into a forrest. The car ran into a tree, which toppled on to the car, blowing off a headlight, crushing the hood, and the oil pan blew off the bottom of the car, sending oil spraying everywhere. Surprisingly, the windshield wasn't hit, leaving everybody inside ok, but the car was now dead.

"Uh, guys, I think we're in trouble." Tommy grumbled.

"Yeah." Zack said agreeing.

Tommy got out of the car to have a look at the damage. By this time, it had gotten dark, so Tommy was using a flashlight he had found in the glove compartment to see what had happened. Just then, several green faces showed up in the dark.

"Oh no, Tommy's being attacked by aliens!" Shouted Chuckie in terror, as he saw the green glow in the dark faces out the window.

"Don't be silly Chuckie, there's no such thing as aliens." Said Zack, as he turned to look out his window, to see several of the green glow in the dark faces, run past.

"Uh, Chuckie? I take that back." Said Zack, as he got out of the car, and lunged towards the faces, but before he could get close enough to start attacking them, they disappeared behind some trees, and it was so dark, Zack wasn't about to go after them, so he got back into the car.

A few minutes later, when Tommy didn't see anymore of the glowing faces, he too got back into the car and switched off the flashlight, leaving everyone in total darkness.

"Is everyone ok?" Tommy asked.

Chuckie just glared at him in anger before starting in on him.

"You! This is all your falt! Once again you drug me along on one of your stupid adventures, just so you could attend that concert, and once again, I went along with it, thinking nothing bad would happen. Well, looks like you got us into a mess that you can't easily get us out of this time Tommy." Chuckie yelled.

"But Chuckie I thought you wanted to go with me to see the Broadway Boys." Said Tommy, trying to keep his calm.

"Yeah but that was back when I thought we'd be licensed to drive. And because of that stupid detention, that it's thanks to you we ended up getting, now look at us. Stranded, lost in the dark, with your dad's car, now totaled for all I know, and nearly attacked by aliens." Shouted Chuckie.

"Forget the stupid concert, forget it." Chuckie continued to shout, as he took his concert ticket out of his pocket, ripped it up, and threw the pieces at Tommy, the tiny pieces of paper, landing in Tommy's hair.

"Hey you two, stop fighting!" Zack shouted.

"You stay out of this Zack." Tommy shouted.

"Well, I don't know about staying out of the fight, but I'm staying out of your life. I should have just ended our friendship many years ago when I didn't want to go to that big green box, or if nothing else, when you and Kimi agreed to date, carving your initials in my garage wall, but no, I forgave you. Well Thomas, I've had enough. You wanna go on some wild adventure with your alter ego who just moved back here, then be my guest. But as far as I'm concerned, we're finished." Chuckie shouted, taking out his retainer, and throwing it at Tommy's head. Tommy catches it, but before he can give it back to Chuckie, he has snatched the flashlight out of Tommy's hand, gotten out of the car, and starts to sprint off away into the forrest.

"Oh, and you can kiss your girlfriend goodbye, cuz Kimi would rather be with Zack." Chuckie shouted, before sprinting away from the car, heading off into the forrest.

Just then, the cloud cover broke, revealing a full moon, which illuminated the car. Tommy sat there for several minutes, staring at his friend's retainer he was holding in his hand, before finally tossing it into the ash tray, and brushing the pieces of ticket paper out of his hair.

Zack POV

When I heard Chuckie tell Tommy how Kimi felt about me, I nearly sank in my seat. I couldn't believe that Chuckie would blow our cover. So I decided I'd better speak up once I saw that Tommy had tossed Chuckie's retainer into the ash tray, and brushed the ticket clippings out of his hair.

"Don't you think we ought to go after Chuckie?" I asked.

Tommy turned to face me, his face looking the angriest I've ever seen it in the entire time I've known him.

"Why don't you tell me the truth. You've been dating Kimi behind my back ever since the eighth grade." Tommy snapped.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I lied.

"Yeah you do. Don't think I didn't notice at my barmitsfa party. You and Kimi disappeared before everybody else. And that summer after I graduated from middle school, Kimi was visiting you, wasn't she. Wasn't she!" Tommy shouted, grabbing at my neck.

"Ok ok, loosen your grip would you?" I said in between breaths, trying to breethe.

"Only if you tell me the truth." Tommy snapped.

"Ok ok, it's true. Kimi and I have been secretly dating ever since middle school. To tell you the truth, Kimi likes both of us, but she couldn't make up her mind, so I agreed to secretly go out with her, and we agreed we wouldn't tell anybody. But hmmm look, now that I've moved back into town it looks like our little love triangle isn't so secret anymore." I said, shouting in Tommy's ear.

"Look Zack, if you wanna have Kimi, see if I care. I'm off to that concert, and nobody's gonna stop me." Tommy snapped, getting out of the car and heading around to the trunk, where he pulled out my Reptar skateboard.

"Hey! That's mine!" I shouted, running after him.

"If you can take my girlfriend, I can take your skateboard, which you only have because my family bought it for you like, five years ago before we were to go to that Emmica concert and you moved away, yeah, you moved away so you could take my girlfriend from me." Tommy snapped, stepping on to the skateboard.

"Hey, I really don't think you should be doing this." I shouted.

But it was too late, Tommy had skated off through the forrest, in the opposite direction of where Chuckie went, in hopes that he'd get back to the highway, and miraculously, skate his way to the concert. I had a bad feeling about this, but I decided I'd do better to go and find Chuckie, and maybe I could convince him to come with me, and the two of us, could catch up to Tommy, we'd all make up, and be friends again, just like in the old days whenever we had some stupid argument over something.

End of Zack POV

Chuckie POV

I was angry with Tommy. Sure he's gotten us into some messes before, but nothing this drastic. I mean we were lucky we weren't caught by some cops or something, having our learner's permits suspended because we were driving without a licensed adult in the car. After I blew my top at Tommy, I disappeared into the forrest, hoping I'd find someone. I caught up to those aliens again, who had the glowing green faces. Just then, one of them spoke up.

"Who's there?" Phil asked.

"Hello Phil, you're not acting in character, the aliens can't speak with earthlings." Said Lance.

"Yeah but I thought I heard some yelling somewhere off in the forrest." Said Phil.

"Who's there?" Dil asked.

"Ohnly your brother's x best friend, Charles Krandle Finster." I snapped.

"And… What are you guys doing here Dil? Phil? And Lance?" I asked hesitantly.

"Welcome to larping. How did you end up here anyway? I thought you and my brother were off to some concert." Said Dil.

I explained to them everything, how Angelica refused to keep her promise to take us to the concert so Tommy got the brilliant idea to drive anyway, even though he didn't have his official license, to prove he was ready to take his driver's test next week, only we ended up in a snow storm, causing us to run off the road, crash into a tree, totaling Stu's car, and being nearly attacked by aliens.

Everyone just looked at me and started laughing. I blushed in embarrassment, not knowing what else to say.

"Uh, Chuckie, I can explain what happened to Angelica." Said Lance.

"Oh yeah? What?" Chuckie asked impatiently.

"Uh, maybe you didn't know this, but Dil and mine's friend, Ryan, well, he's dating Gloria. You're probably aware that Kimi and Lil went off to that youth group lockin last night. Well, Gloria, Savanna, and Angelica went too. Ryan snuck Gloria in with some pot and chocolate martinis he had made up at home, don't ask me why his aunt is an alcoholic, but anyway, well you guys know how Angelica can't resist anything that's chocolate. I heard from Ryan, who heard from Gloria, that Angelica smoked some dope to try it, drank six of the chocolate martinis that Gloria snuck into the lockin, and has been passed out on a couch for several hours." Said Lance.

"Well if you knew this, why didn't Kimi or Lil inform me, Tommy and Zack about this?" I shouted.

"Lil tried to contact you, Kimi did too, but you weren't home." Said Phil.

"I slept at Tommy's last night. Doesn't anybody pay attention anymore? Oh, that's right, you're too busy in colinary school and Lil's too busy being a beauty school drop in to care about us anymore." I snapped.

"That's not true, we care very much about you, and your sister Kimi adores you." Phil snapped back.

But I didn't feel up to arguing anymore. I just stood there, staring into Phil's face for several minutes, that is, until I received a tap on the shoulder.

End of Chuckie POV

Zack POV

When Tommy snuck off to the concert via my skateboard, I was not only mad at him for taking my skateboard, but pretty angry after seeing so much stupidity go down that night. In all the years I've known Tommy, Chuckie and the gang, I never saw us get into this much of a rut. But at that moment, I had a decision to make. I could either chase after Tommy, or I could chase after Chuckie. But seeing that Tommy was mad at me for steeling his girlfriend, which, I will admit Kimi and I were in a long distance relationship before she and Tommy ever carved their initials into that wall. But he wouldn't believe me. So since it was obviously official who Kimi had chosen, I decided I'd chase after her brother instead, and make sure he didn't get hurt. For all I knew, Tommy would make it himself to that concert. He may have wrecked his dad's car, but he hadn't wrecked himself yet, not physically anyway.

I headed away from Stu's totaled car, which had my cell phone's battery not died, I might have called Tripple A to come toe it away, only even if it were working, I had no clue what the number was. So I just headed in the direction that Chuckie had ran, hoping I'd eventually, catch up to him. I heard arguing, in several familiar voices, and it was clear who the aliens were. They obviously weren't real aliens, it was Dil's larping group. Nonetheless, I finally reached Chuckie, and snapped him out of his quarrel with Phil, by giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder.

End of Zack POV

"Zack?" Chuckie asked, turning around to see who had tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yes Chuckie, it's me. Look, we've got a bigger problem. Maybe none of you care, but Tommy has run off." Said Zack.

"What? Where's my brother?" Dil asked.

Just then, Stu approached the group.

"What's going on here?" Stu asked.

Zack and Chuckie took turns explaining everything that had happened, and as a result of their quarrel, Tommy out of anger, decided to venture out to the concert on his own, thinking he'd make it there on Zack's Reptar skateboard.

The gang all led Stu to where his blue car was, now totaled, and completely useless. He screamed at the site of the car.

"Now Stu, there's no need to cry over spilled milk. It was an accident." Said Zack.

"Yeah, an accident that could have been avoided if my son hadn't been so stupid. Why doesn't he have his license anyway? Didn't he and Chuckie take their driver's tests on Thursday?" Stu asked.

"We had detention." Chuckie muttered.

"Detention, for what?" Stu asked.

"For being late to class after taking too long to eat lunch at Burger Queen." Chuckie replied.

"Never mind that now, we've got to find Tommy. I'll round up Lance's mom Lisa, and we'll send out a search party. Oh, but you guys might wanna wash off that glow in the dark paint. I'm amazed that I finally invented something that worked." Stu said excitedly.

Everyone went and showered off quickly, while Chuckie and Zack helped pack up camp, rounded up Lisa and the others, and headed in her red van out to find Tommy. Meanwhile, Stu called Triple A to come and rescue his car from the forrest, and take it off to a junk place, since it was no longer useable, and he waited for Triple A while the gang finished cleaning up. An hour later, Triple A took Stu's totaled car away, and he ran to catch up with the others, who were already piled into Lisa's van. He caught up to them, and everyone, headed off.

Tommy POV

I've never been so angry in my entire life! First, my best friend since infanthood bails on me all because I do something stupid, and then, my best friend since toddler hood, claims he's been going with the one girl I truly love, behind my back. Well I was gonna show them. If they'd rather ruin my life, then I'd go to that concert by myself. And if Zack could steel Kimi from me, then who says I couldn't take his skateboard, which I might add, I did get for him as a present a few years ago.

Using the light of the moon, I made my way back through the forrest, to where we came from, the turnpike. Cars were rushing every which way, but I figured, I could do this. No problem. But to be safe, I used the breakdown lane, forgetting that it had snowed earlier, which meant there'd be ice on the roads. The cars came rushing by, slipping and sliding, but I didn't care. I skated down the breakdown lane, in the direction we were heading when we went off the road.

As I continued down the road though, I began to lose control, as the road was slippery. I tried to stop, but couldn't. Next thing I knew, I was tossed off the skateboard, lying in the road, and suddenly, everything went black, as a car came near.

End of Tommy POV

Realizing what had happened, the person in the car that had hit Tommy pulled over, and called 911 from their cell phone. In minutes, the traffic was stopped, and ambulances had shown up. A red van with two adults and several teenagers had shown up at the same time the ambulances had arrived.

Zack POV

As I road in the back of Lisa's van, for the first time, I felt scared. Sure maybe Tommy was mad at me, but there had been a major snow storm. I didn't even care about going to the concert anymore. I just cared if Tommy was all right. Well, we headed down the road, and approached what appeared to be an accident. I peered out the window to see my skateboard tossed to the side of the road, and then, it hit me! Tommy had been in an accident!

I got out of the van at this point and retrieved my skateboard, which had several cracks in it, but I didn't care.

"Zack, what are you doing!" Stu exclaimed.

"Just getting my skateboard, it looks like we're stopped anyway." I said, getting back into the van with my skateboard, seating myself next to Phil, who I was next to all along.

"Oh no, my brother!" Cried Dil.

Just then, I looked out the other side of the car to see Tommy's body on a stretcher, and, well, Tommy looked pretty banged up. I can't even begin to describe what he looked like, but to put it simply, he looked like something out of a horror film.

End of Zack POV

Once Tommy was secured in the ambulance, the party headed back towards Yucaipa, Lisa's van following behind the ambulance all the way to the hospital.

And, this, ends chapter 4.

So, will Tommy be all right? Will everyone eventually make up and be friends again? Find out, next time. And next time may be sometime tomorrow at this rate, since it's getting late, I'm growing tired and hungry, and need a break, but no worries, I'll make sure to reveal the answers within the next 24 hours.


	5. Chapter 5, The Bad News

Chapter 5, The Bad News

Author's Notes: A new character named Jesse appears in this chapter. He's an OC created by Jesse J. Barrow Also Jesse J. Barrow is the creater of Jesse's parents, his mother Laura and Jesse's father, who's name escapes me at the moment. Will continue to write the majority of this story from Zack's POV, since I find I seem to write better when going from different POV's, being able to use the first person tense for that particular character.

Zack POV

As we neared the hospital in Lance's van, I continued to twittle my thumbs, praying that Tommy would be ok. We eventually, made it back to Yucaipa, California, by roughly three in the morning, and I didn't care that Tommy, Chuckie and I had completely missed the Broadway Boys concert. By the time we had gotten to the hospital, Tommy was already back in ICU, being tended to. A nurse instructed us all to go home and they would be contacting Tommy's family the next day when they had more news. Figuring everybody was pretty disgusted with me, between going along with Tommy's stupid plan, and keeping a love affair between me and Kimi secret for so long, only to have Kimi's older brother Chuckie blow our cover, I decided on that particular Sunday, to lay low, and not talk to anybody. I even turned off my cell phone, so nobody could get a hold of me.

At some point that day, my aunt told me she was going over to Stu and Didi's. I asked if I could come along, and she told me it might be best that she go by herself. So she did, and I continued to watch all of the videos that Tommy had put on to that DVD he made for me when I moved away five years ago, wishing the good times could return. But then, it hit me. Why would Tommy's parents want to see my aunt alone. Was I in trouble or something? Did something drastic happen to Tommy that they didn't feel comfortable telling me, and figured I'd take it better hearing it from my aunt? All I could do is wait, and see what happened.

End of Zack POV

Celeste POV

I received a phone call at about 10:30 AM on Sunday, January 27, 2027 from Didi Pickles, Tommy and Dil's mom.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hi Celeste, it's Didi." Said Didi, in between sobs.

"Is something wrong? How is Tommy? I heard he, my nephew and Chuckie were all involved in a car accident last night." I said.

"Yeah but did you hear what else happened?" Didi said.

"No." I replied.

Didi went on to tell me that Tommy had gone off on my nephew's skateboard down the turnpike, only to get hurt on the slippery roads, and run over by a car. As a result of this incident, his head was split open, and he had to undergo a blood transfusion, not to mention, he had several fractures, which included both ribs, his left arm, left leg, and right foot. But while that was pretty bad, that wasn't the worse part.

"Well what could be worse than the fractures?" I asked.

"I'd feel better telling you in person. Visiting hours are not until noon at the hospital today, so Stu and I are at home right now if you want to come over." Said Didi into the phone.

"Ok, Zack and I will be right there." I said.

"Um, I think it would be better if you came by yourself." Replied Didi.

"Ok, I'll be right there." I said, as I hung up the phone.

I let Zack know where I was going, and headed for Stu and Didi's house. When I got there, Stu let me in, and I headed to the kitchen, where cups of hot chocolate were out for us. Didi, burying her face into a box of tissues and crying.

"Hi Didi." I said, taking a seat next to her at the table.

"Hi Celeste." Didi said.

"So, what else is going on with Tommy?" I asked.

There were several minutes of silence before Didi spoke up.

"Well, Tommy's face was badly hurt, in particular, his eyes." Said Didi.

"His eyes? Oh no! So what's going to happen?" I asked..

"Well a doctor called us this morning, and said that they'll have to remove Tommy's eyes, which means from now on, he's going to be… He's going to be… Oh I can't say it." Said Didi, as she started to cry again.

"Blind?" I said finishing her sentence.

Didi's sobs only grew louder.

"I am so sorry." I said, putting my arm around Didi's shoulder.

"And what about Tommy? We're not sure how he will take the news when he should eventually, become conscious again, and notice his sight is gone." Said Stu, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

"In all the years I've known your son, he and my nephew are a lot alike, so I'm sure at first, he'll be upset, but Zack has always done his best to make Tommy along with the others, aware of my blindness and disabilities in general over the years, so I wouldn't worry. But if it makes you feel better, on weekends when I am not working, I'd be happy to work with Tommy, and help him learn some Braille and adaptive equipment, so he can more so easily communicate, and keep up with his school work." I said.

"Thank you so much. I know he and Zack had a falling out last night, so it's nice of you to want to help us help Tommy adapt to these new changes, even if he and Zack's friendship is no more." Said Didi, reaching over and giving me a hug.

"It is my pleasure." I said, smiling at her.

End of Celeste POV

Jesse POV

My name is Jesse, and I recently moved back to Yucaipa, California from Scotland, CT. I would be starting school tomorrow at Yucaipa High on Monday, January 28, 2027, but I was glancing at Facebook statuses via my iPad while my parents were unpacking, when I came across Dil's latest Facebook status. It read the following. My brother is in the hospital, after being severely injured in an accident. Please pray that he will be alright. If anybody wishes to visit him, visiting hours are today between noon and four, and Tommy Pickles is in room 268.

I wasn't sure if he would remember me, but I decided to head to the hospital to visit him.

"Mom, I'm going to visit Tommy, he's in the hospital as a result of a terrible accident." I said, walking past the living room where my mom and dad were putting some books on to a bookshelf.

"Ok, that's fine, hope Tommy's going to be ok. Just be back by dinner time." Said Laura, glancing up from her unpacking in my direction.

"Sure thing mom." I said, as I headed out the front door, hopped on my bike, and pulled up Google maps on my phone, in search of the hospital.

I made it to the hospital by about 3 in the afternoon. I put my bike on the bike rack out front, and made my way to an elevator, heading up to the second floor. When I got off, I went to the counter to the receptionist, to check in.

"My name is Jesse, and I'm here to visit Tommy Pickles in room 268." I said to the lady behind the desk, who had bright red hair, green eyes and black specticals.

"Take a left and it will be the third door on your right." Said the lady behind the counter.

"Thank you mam." I said.

"And young mam, visiting hours end at four on Sundays." Continued the lady, as I started to turn away from the counter.

"I'm aware of that, but thank you." I said, as I headed down the hall towards Tommy's room.

As I walked down the hall, several high school students were walking out of his room, in my direction, none of which I recognized. Chances are they met Tommy after I moved away. After all, I hadn't been here since the age of four, over eleven, twelve years ago. Nonetheless, I made my way to his room, and saw that Tommy and I were alone.

I got there to see Tommy, though he looked more like a badly banged up mummy. He had several bandages around his head, a couple of bandages on his eyes, a cast on his left arm, left leg, and right foot, as well as some casts on his ribs, indicating that he must have broken his ribs in this accident. I took his right hand, and held it for several minutes.

"Hi Tommy, don't know if you remember me, but I'm Jesse. We use to play together when we were really little. I moved away at the age of 4, but just recently moved back. I read on your brother's Facebook that you were badly injured last night, so decided to pay you a visit. Sorry this happened, and I hope you feel better." I said, continuing to hold his right hand.

Tommy squeezed my hand really hard, which obviously told me that he recognized and heard me speak, but was too weak to speak back. I didn't mind, at least he was alive, and that was enough to tell me he would eventually, be ok.

A little while later, a nurse came into the room.

"Awe, are you a friend of Tommy's?" Asked the nurse.

"Yes, I'm Jesse. Just moved back to Yucaipa, after being away for several years." I replied.

"Well, you should be running along, visiting hours end in roughly ten minutes." Said the nurse.

"Yes mam." I said.

"Well, bye Tommy, I'll try to come visit you again really soon." I said.

Tommy gave my hand another squeeze, before I let go and left the room.

End of Jesse POV

Zack POV

Later that day, my aunt returned, and told me the whole story involving how serious Tommy's injuries really were. We had a long cry, as we realized the reality, that Tommy, was now disabled, as a result of this accident. And while Tommy wasn't my favorite person right now, once he was strong enough to speak again, cuz as far as we all knew at this time, he was still unconscious, I think I, along with Kimi, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Dil, and if I could get her to come along, Angelica, not only all o'd Tommy a huge apology, Angelica in particular, cuz this all could have been avoided if she hadn't broken her promise to take us to the concert, but I was really hoping I would find Kimi the next day at school, so she and I could settle things, once and for all. I loved Kimi, but I also knew that Tommy loved her too. Is it more important in this tragic time in Tommy's life for him to have a girlfriend? Should I be a good friend and give up Kimi, so my best friend could be happy? But I know I'd be just miserable without Kimi in my life. She's the best thing that has ever happened to me. To be honest, I thought about going over the wall several times while out in Wheeling, but it was thanks to having that secret love with Kimi, that kept me from throwing my life away. I couldn't lose her now.

As I pondered those last few thoughts, I crawled into bed at roughly 10 that night, as I drifted off to sleep, in hopes to see what the next day would bring.

The following day, I headed off to school, on foot since my skateboard was badly cracked and banged up, not wishing to bang it up anymore, until I found something to fix it, or possibly, a replacement. I got there to hear several people talking, and obviously, talking about Tommy.

"Did you hear about what happened to Tommy Pickles, president of the film club?" Said a student wearing a pink tank top and capree pants.

"I hear his cousin, captain of the wrestling team, bailed on some promise again." Said another student wearing a red jersey.

"That's nothing new." Said a very loud boy with dark hair and glasses, passing through the halls at that moment.

"I hear he's the mummy!" Said a girl with long brown hair wearing a green dress.

"Not just a mummy, but a blind, mute mummy." Said another girl passing through the halls at that moment, with long black hair wearing a purple dress.

I couldn't help but overhear the rumors as I walked towards my locker to get my books for the first half of the day.

"Hey Zack." Called a boy near a locker, with black hair wearing a blue and white striped shirt and blue jeans.

"Hi, who are you?" I asked.

"Don't you remember me Zack? I'm Jesse!" Said Jesse, turning towards me, picking up his books and closing his locker.

"Oh yeah, now I remember you." I said.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you move to Wheeling or something?" Jesse asked.

"I just moved back last Wednesday." I replied, as we walked towards the band room for my first period class.

"I moved back on Saturday. Been in Scotland, CT for the last eleven years. It sure is great to be back! Too bad for Tommy though." Said Jesse.

"Yeah, he was injured pretty badly." I said.

"You should have seen him! I paid him a visit in the hospital yesterday, and, it's no rumor, he really does, look like the mummy. Oooh, he should do a remake of The Mummy as his next film or something! Been checking out his Youtube channel this whole time while I've been away, he's got some pretty nifty stuff up there!" Said Jesse excitedly.

"I hate to break it to you Jesse, but his filming days may be a thing of the past." I said.

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked.

I went on to tell Jesse about what my aunt had told me last night. How Tommy's eyes had to be removed, because his eyes were seriously damaged as a result of the accident, as the car rolled over his face, causing Tommy to be totally blind the rest of his life.

"Oh no that's awful!" Said Jesse.

"I know." I said with a frown.

"So, do the rest of our friends know what's going on? You know, well, I assume Tommy's brother Dil and cousin Angelica know, but you know, do Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Kimi and Susie know about this?" Jesse asked.

"I have no idea. To tell you the truth, a lot has happened, and some of us, let's just say, aren't on the best of speaking terms right now." I said with a sigh, shrugging my shoulders.

"No worries, I have a way to reunite everybody. Just leave it up to me." Said Jesse, giving me a half smile.

I had a bad feeling about this. Jesse was always known when we were kids, as the hyper trouble maker. I just hope for all of our sake, he doesn't just go and stir up more trouble.

No matter, when we got to the door to the chorus room, Jesse told me goodbye, as he was in chorus first period, so I told him goodbye, and went on to band. My day was relatively uneventful, but it was sweet to learn that Jesse was in jazz band with me. I played keyboard, while he played base guitar. Then, later, I saw him again in my fifth period Algebra class with Mister Toben, and we had the same lunch together so Jesse and I headed to Burger Queen and got lunch to go.

"Don't you have a skateboard or something? It would make this trip a lot faster." Said Jesse, as we were carrying our lunches back to school from the restaurant.

"Yeah I do, a Reptar skateboard that the gang had gotten me as a going away present a few years ago when I moved away, but while it wasn't nearly as badly damaged as Tommy was, it was in that accident over the weekend. Tommy had taken the skateboard from me out of anger over the fact that there's been a love triangle going on between me, him, and Kimi for the last few years. My skateboard was pretty banged up, so decided to not use it today, to prevent further complications." I said.

"Depending on how bad the damage is, I might be able to help you fix that up." Said Jesse, as we approached the school.

"Really? Thanks!" I said.

We got back to school, ate our lunches, and I headed off to Coco's French class, while Jesse went to his sixth period English class. He too had Mrs. PorkLoin, but he had her at sixth period, while I was in her fourth period class. And for once, because I just glanced at the board to see what today's workbook assignment was, and told Coco I was at class when she called my name during attendance, it was the most peaceful class I had since I started three days ago. That is, until a vibration came from my pocket. In fact, there were several vibrations in a row.

I figured, that maybe, if I was really quiet, Coco wouldn't notice. So I got out my phone to glance at the text messages that had come in. The first one that caught my attention was a message from Jesse, telling us to meet him at the park at 4 after school, near the basketball court. I saw he sent this as a group text message, to Susie, Dil, Angelica, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, and me. I wrote back confirming I'd be there. There were several texts from Chuckie, and a few that sounded like jibberish from Tommy. The sweetest one was one I failed to see from yesterday, an I love you text from Kimi. Has Kimi finally made up her mind? I certainly hope so. I really wasn't up for being in this love triangle anymore, and whether it had to be done in front of everyone at the park, or after our little meeting, I was going to settle things with Kimi, once and for all. I also saw a text from Chuckie that read, I'm not talking to you Kimi, which he mistakenly sent to me by accident. I forwarded it to Kimi, but as I was typing in the intro of the message to Kimi that Chuckie had sent this to me by accident, Coco looked up from her desk, and saw me texting.

"Zachary? What are you doing? You know cell phones aren't allowed in my classroom." Coco snapped.

"I'm sorry mam, I promise, I'll put it away just as soon as I send this text." I said.

"No, you put it away now!" Snapped Coco.

But I finished the text instead, just as I hit send, my cell phone was snatched out of my hand.

"Hey! What was that for?" I asked.

"Your phone is mine now. You can have it back after class, provided your in class work is finished." Said Coco, dangling the phone in front of my face, before stepping away and putting it into a desk drawer in her desk at the front of the room.

I knew for a fact that this was not a class to screw around in, first, a tardy slip on my first day, and now, my cell phone being taken away? I got back to work and finished the last exercise just as the bell rang, turning in my work to Coco.

"Thank you Zack, you may go now." Coco snapped.

"Um, don't you o me something too?" I said.

"Oh, yeah, your hunk of plastic you scoundrals use called cell phones. Here." Snapped Coco, as she tossed my cell phone into my hand.

I scurried away as fast as I could, practically running to my history class. I bumped into Kimi on my way.

"Oh, sorry sweetheart." I said.

"Hey, she's mine!" Shouted Jesse, who came up behind me.

"And since when is Kimi now your girlfriend?" I asked.

"Since I ran into her between third and fourth period. She smiled at me." Said Jesse.

"That means nothing. Besides, she's in love with me and Tommy. I've heard of a love triangle, but never a love square." I said.

"Well, we'll just see about that when you and the rest of the gang joins me at the park after school today, for my forgiveness circle." Said Jesse, scooting past me into Mrs. Soco's room. Apparently, we had seventh period together.

"Look, I'm tired of all of this fighting over me! I'm not a trophy!" Shouted Kimi, as she stomped off in the opposite direction.

I was getting a bad feeling about this, and I just hoped that we could put a stop to all of this fighting, and everybody could just, make up and be friends again. And why Jesse didn't say anything at Algebra or while we were eating lunch together is beyond me. He probably didn't wanna get into an argument with me on his first day at school, and my third day here. Whatever, I just went into history, took my seat, and took out my history book and notebook when an announcement came over the P.A. system.

"Attention all members of the Yucaipa High Film Club. Due to recent events that have occurred with our president, today's after school meeting has been canceled. However, we're looking for someone to take his place this upcoming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night to film the three nights of The Mystery of Edwin Drood for the DVD release. If you have any knowledge of filming at all, and any experience with using a camera and electronic equipment, and are not currently in the play or the band or chorus, please come to my office after school. That is all." Said Mister Salmon over the P.A. system.

I decided I would go talk to Mister Salmon. Maybe Tommy would forgive me if I took his place as Film Club President, or camera fillin, whichever the title was at this time. Though I had no idea if Tommy even knew what was going on with him yet, so decided I'd just go there anyway, and see if I couldn't pose the friendly jesture, even if all it did was make me feel better that I helped out, plus, I'd for sure get to see the play, and wouldn't have to purchase a ticket, which between everything going on, I hadn't had a chance to stop by the student store to see if there were any tickets left. Just in case, I ran by the student store after school, to see Susie Carmichael was there, doing her shift.

"Well hey Zack, how goes things?" Susie asked.

"Fine." I lied.

"Can I interest you in anything? I'm about to close up, got All State practice with Miss Palmtree after school." Said Susie.

"Oh yeah I was wondering how your practice went over the weekend at that Los Angelas Music Center or whatever it's called." I said." I asked.

"It went great! So, what are you looking for anyway?" Susie asked.

"Are there any tickets left for any of the upcoming performances of The Mystery of Edwin Drood?" I asked.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry, we're all sold out." Said Susie, pointing to an empty pink bucket that use to hold the tickets on the student store counter.

"That's ok. I'm heading to Mister Salmon's office. Maybe there's a chance I can fill in for Tommy since he's absent, and, probably permanently out of film club." I said.

"What do you mean, permanently out?" Susie asked.

"You are coming to that meeting Jesse summoned us to attend at the park this afternhoon, aren't you?" I asked.

"I'll be there as soon as my practice is over." Said Susie.

"Ok, see you later." I said, heading off towards Mister Salmon's office.

I got there, to find Jesse, and several other people I didn't recognize.

"Look, I only need either three volunteers to help with the filming, one different person each night, or one person to help with the filming for all three nights in succession." Said Mister Salmon, once he got everybody to be quiet and pay attention.

"I'd be happy to help." I said eagerly.

"And you're…" Said Mister Salmon.

"Zack, Zack Werehnberg." I said.

"I'm Jesse Barrow, and I too would be interested." Said Jesse.

"Ok, we've got two volunteers, and there are three performances that need to be filmed. Anyone else?" Asked Mister Salmon.

A tall guy in the back with black spiked hair who I didn't recognize spoke up.

"Ok, in this hat are slips of paper with the days on it. Pick a slip, that's your day. If any of you should get sick or hurt between now and then, contact me immediately." Said Mister Salmon.

We drew the slips of paper. I got Thursday, Jesse got Friday, and the guy I didn't recognize got Saturday.

"Ok, that settles it then. Be here early on your day so I can show you the equipment and get you set up from where you're going to film. Take care and have a nice day." Said Mister Salmon, as we all filed out of his office, my stepping on a woopy cushion, causing it to make noise, followed by me, along with anybody else who hadn't left yet, to explode into uncontrollable laughter.

That guy seriously needs to clean up his office, I thought to myself, as Jesse grabbed my arm. And started dragging me down the hallway.

"Come on Zack, we've gotta get to the park!" Protested Jesse.

"I'm coming I'm coming! Geash!" I said impatiently.

We bolted out of the school, and headed towards the park, for what could either be the mending, or the ending, of several life long friendships. I just hoped Jesse knew what he was doing.

End of Zack POV

And, this concludes chapter 5. So, will Jesse's little ritual work? Will Kimi finally settle on one person to be her boyfriend and stick with it? And, who will she pick? Will it be Zack? Tommy? Or Jesse? And Tommy? Will he ever talk again? Will he forgive everyone? And how will he take the news of his new disability? I have some grocery shopping to do, but will be sure to put up chapter 6 sometime later on tonight. And, hopefully, I've got nowhere to go tomorrow, so can finish up this story before I pay my nephew a visit on Wednesday, and get my hair done. For now, Rugrats fans, please take care, and, I promise to have this story updated very soon.


	6. Chapter 6, The Confession Circle

Chapter 6, The Confession Circle

Jesse POV

I was racing through the streets of Yucaipa, California on the aftrernoon of my first day of school, with Zack clinging to my arm. As we headed for the park, I thought about the events that I had witnessed earlier that day. Noticing how when Chuckie and Kimi came into school, they weren't speaking to one another. How Phil and Lil seemed to be separate from the gang, just going off to their specialized courses, not giving a care in the world about the rest of their friends, and how I ran into Dil's best friend Lance, who filled me in on everything that had gone down that weekend, based on what he had heard from Zack and Chuckie, and then, the difficult part of my day. It happened during fourth period study hall with Miss Hobs. I didn't have much homework, except for a worksheet I had received in my second period Chemistry class, and seeing that Chemistry is a strong point of mine, I whipped through the assignment rather quickly, so I got permission from Miss Hobs to play on my phone for the rest of the period. So I decided to give Tommy's cell a call, maybe he would have it on him, and maybe, just maybe, he was finally speaking. I figured if he didn't pick up, I could always leave him a voice message. Well, I gave his cell phone a call, to have it ring twice, followed by Tommy answering.

"Hello." Tommy said rather plainly.

"Wow, you're talking again. It's Jesse. How are you feeling pal?" I asked.

Tommy sighed before responding.

"Not so great." Tommy said.

"Oh? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Well I awoke today in total darkness. I asked a nurse what was going on, and she told me they had to remove my eyes because of the accident I was in. As a result, well, I can't see anymore." Tommy continued, as he started to burst into tears.

"Now I wouldn't worry Tommy, you'll get use to not seeing. It's like that blindfold game we use to play with Zack when we were little." I replied.

"Yeah only now, the blindfold is permanently attached to my head." Tommy said in between sobs.

"Now calm down." I said.

"And to top it off, I'm in a lot of pain. I've got a splitting migraine headache, and, you may have noticed when you were here yesterday, I broke my ribs, left arm, left leg, and right foot in the accident as well. I feel really guilty and stupid right now for what I did, and I'm sure everyone hates me right now. The only people who came to visit me yesterday were you, and a few people from Film Club." Said Tommy.

"So, you did recognize me." I said.

"Yeah, I heard every word. I was just too weak and in too much pain to try to speak, so squeezing your hand was all I could do to communicate at the time. It wasn't until today when they removed the bandages from my eyes and I noticed I was blind that I finally got up the courage to speak, even if it was painful." Said Tommy.

"Like I said earlier, being blind isn't all bad." I replied, trying to help Tommy feel better, but I probably only made things worse.

"Not so bad. Jesse, I had my heart set on being some famous movie director or producer or something someday. Now that dream is ruined!" Shouted Tommy.

"That doesn't mean you can't find a new dream. Look, you just get some rest. I'll get the rest of the gang together after school, as I've run into everybody in the hall at least once today during school, and we'll give you a call." I said, trying to help fix the situation.

"Fine, whatever, I'll talk to you later." Snapped Tommy, before he hung up the phone.

I then composed the massive text message to everyone saying to meet me at the park after school, as the fifth period bell rang, and I headed off for Mister Toben's Algebra class.

End of Jesse POV

By about 4:15 that afternoon, the entire gang was sitting in a circle on the grass at the park, with Jesse between Angelica and Dil, Phil was next to Dil, Lil was next to Phil, Chuckie was next to Lil, Susie was next to Chuckie, Zack was next to Susie, Kimi was next to Zack, and Angelica was next to Kimi, putting Jesse in between Angelica and Dil.

"Listen guys, I called you all here this afternoon because we have some important stuff to discuss." Said Jesse.

He went on to talk about the phone conversation he had with Tommy during his fourth period study hall, and how Tommy was feeling pretty miserable, and was quite unhappy about finding out he was suddenly totally blind, after having perfect 20/20 vision for the last fifteen years of his life. He went on to talk about how he had also passed by Dil's friend Lance in between second and third period in the hall, and Lance walked with him to jazz band, and told him everything he had heard from Ryan about how Ryan and Gloria were dating, and Gloria snuck into the lockin on Friday night with the martini's and pot, getting Angelica all roused up on drugs and alcohol, causing her to break her promise she had made to Zack, Tommy and Chuckie about giving them a ride to the concert on Saturday night, because she spent most of her weekend, either passed out on a couch at Saint Mary's church, or with her head in a toilet. Lance had also told Jesse about everything else that Chuckie and Zack had told him when they ran into them on the larping trip.

"I don't know if I know everything that's been going on with everybody, but I've only been in town for three days, and from the looks of it all, I've seen enough drama and crud to last a lifetime. Tommy has been our friend forever, and so, we all need to just forgive and forget, make amends, and start over. The last thing any of us need right now, is ruined friendships. First, Angelica, not only are you going to apologize to Tommy, but you're about to graduate from high school. It's time you grow up, and learn to not break your promises within the last few months you'll be around us before you graduate and head off to college. Chuckie, chances are Tommy is probably never going on any adventures again, so you won't have to worry about facing danger territory with him anymore. And Kimi, you're one of the main problems in all of this. You need to figure out who you love, and stick with one boyfriend, not two. And don't give your brother the silent treatment because he told Tommy yours and Zack's secret. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody's perfect. I was hoping to return to a group of mature adults, but you guys are acting more like babies than you did when we were all babies in the first place. And Phil and Lil, I know you two are busy with your cosmetology program and colinary program at school, but it would be nice if you two made more time to hang out with all of us, and not just to go on shopping trips and to sleepovers and lockins with Kimi, and on larping trips with Dil." Said Jesse.

He was referring to how Lil only hung out with Kimi on the weekends, and Phil would attend larping with Dil and Lance.

"I'm going to give everybody ten minutes to think about what they want to say to Tommy, as well to one another in this group, and then, I'm going to give Tommy's cell a call. Regardless if we get him on the line, or his voicemail, we're going to go around, and tell Tommy what we need to say, making up with one another, and moving on with our lives. Got it?" Said Jesse.

Everyone else turned to Jesse and nodded approvingly, before Jesse set an alarm on his phone, giving everybody their ten minutes to think about what they were going to say to Tommy, as well as to one another.

Author's Note: I could go through what everybody was thinking, but since Kimi had the most difficult decision to make of them all, I'm only going to look at what Kimi thought about over those ten minutes.

Return to text

Kimi POV

As the minutes droaned on, I thought about the last few years. How I had been going out with both, Zack and Tommy, and up until this past weekend, neither one knew about one another's love affair with me. I knew now that Zack was back in town for good, this love triangle could no longer go on. And then, when Jesse popped up out of the blue today, claiming he had a crush on me, I was glad to see how Zack tried to put a stop to it in between sixth and seventh period, but at the same time, I stood up for myself, claiming that I wasn't a trophy, and to just, leave me alone! And while I didn't want to break up with Tommy at this difficult time in his life, I have to be brutally honest. The more I think about it, the more I like Zack over Tommy. Zack is intelligent, talented, and when he texted me to tell me he was thinking about trying out to be in the musical Wicked, after performances for The Mystery of Edwin Drood were completed, I thought about how much fun it would be, getting to try out together and hopefully, we'd both make the production, and get to be in the musical together. And so, this wasn't going to be easy to do, but I had finally made up my mind, and as soon as it came around to my turn to speak, I was going to put an end to this love triangle for good.

End of Kimi POV

The alarm finally rang on Jesse's phone, so Jesse turned it off, and went to start making the call, when Zack spoke up.

"Uh, Jesse, I tried to call Tommy last Thursday night, and when I got his voicemail, the mailbox was full." Said Zack.

"Well, let's hope for our sake, Tommy is awake and answers." Said Jesse, as he started to dial Tommy's number.

He put the phone on speaker phone as it rang about four times before Tommy answered.

"Hello?" Tommy said sleepily.

"Oh, did we wake you?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah but I'm use to it. It's no different from when I had that stupid Gray Plague several years back. Getting sleep in a hospital is just about as possible as bringing people back from the dead." Said Tommy.

"Look, I've got everybody gathered here with me, and we all have something we'd like to say." Said Jesse, as he motioned to Angelica to start saying her piece.

"Look Tommy, I'm sorry for breaking my promise to you, Chuckie and Zack over the weekend. I went to the lockin at church with Kimi, Lil, and Gloria, and, well, Gloria got me to drink some martini's and smoke some pot she snuck in that her boyfriend Ryan had given her. Apparently, when I'm roused up on drugs and alcohol, I forget things, forgetting about the promise I made and I'm very sorry." Said Angelica.

"And…" Interveened Jesse.

"And, for the remainder of my senior year, any of you pipsqueeks who can't drive who need rides on their dates, I'll give up my freedom on the weekends to drive you all, provided I don't have a date with Brody first." Added Angelica.

"I thought you didn't like Brody." Said Jesse.

"Well, I've thought about it, and, I ought to give Brody a chance. I'm finally over Harold breaking up with me at Christmas, and besides, I've got senior prom coming up. I don't need to look like a dork showing up at the prom with nobody, now do I!" Angelica snapped.

"Yeah, I suppose that could be true." Said Jesse.

Jesse then handed the phone over to Dil, but before Dil could speak, a rock was thrown at his head.

"Ow! Who did that!" Dil shouted, as he turned around, to see Gloria off in the distance.

"Gloria, what are you doing here?" Dil asked.

"Just throwing rocks, because I have nothing better to do." Said Gloria.

"And you throw them at my head, because…" Dil said.

"Because I like you ok?" Gloria said.

Everyone stared at her in silence for several minutes, as Gloria marched over to Dil.

"Excuse me?" Dil asked.

"I like you." Said Gloria.

"So that's why you've been mean to me all of these years and got Phil and Lil to drop me on my head as an infant." Said Dil.

"Yeah." Replied Gloria.

"Well you can't have me. Besides, won't Ryan be jealous?" Dil asked.

"Ryan. You knuckle heads no nothing! Don't you all know that Ryan got sent off to alternative school this morning?" Said Gloria.

Dil nodded his head, as did the rest of the group.

"Yeah, Principal Johnson caught him sneaking pot into the school and expelled him today." Said Gloria.

"That would explain why Lance was the only one who showed up with me at lunch today to go get our usual weekly lunch at Burger Queen." Said Dil.

"And besides Dil, you can't date Gloria even if you wanted to. Aren't you still with Cristy?" Zack asked.

"Oh, that. I haven't seen Cristy since the end of eighth grade. I guess Tommy never told you, she suffered from several brain tumors as a child, resulting in her having a massive stroke in March of my eighth grade year, around the time Lance and Ryan moved to California. Cristy and her parents moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, and Cristy now lives in some group home up there. I haven't heard from her since. And besides, even if I had, I'm, well, I'm gay." Said Dil.

"Come again?" Zack asked.

"Yeah Zack, I'm gay, you know, homosexual" Said Dil.

Everybody stared at him for several minutes before Phil spoke up.

"It's true. Dil and I have been an item since Dil finished summer school last summer and we started larping together." Said Phil.

"Yeah, and I knew about it, but was sworn to keep my brother's secret because he wasn't sure what the rest of you would think of it." Said Lil.

"So let me get this straight. Dil and Phil, you two would go to larping together so you two could be together, and nobody would notice, since it's an all boy's group?" Zack asked.

Dil and Phil nodded.

"Makes sense." Said Zack.

"Ok, who's next to go and confess something?" Jesse asked.

"But wait, Dil, why were you in summer school anyway?" Zack interrupted.

"Well if you must know everything, Lance and I started skipping first and second period to hang out when he moved here in the eighth grade. My first and second period classes were English and Gym, and seeing that at the time, I was pretty depressed over losing Cristy, I didn't mind starting my day a bit later, but Principal Pangborn and my teachers weren't pleased. I had to take English and Gym in summer school if I wanted to get out of middle school and go on to high school, missing my eighth grade graduation." Said Dil with a sigh.

"Well, I hope you learned your lesson." Said Zack.

"Oh I have, and I won't do something like that again." Replied Dil.

"So I'm guessing that after Cristy left, you found you liked guys more?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, I did. Anyway, enough with this conversation. Let's move on, shall we?" Dil asked, pointing a finger at Lil.

"Ok ok, I'll admit, Jesse, I like you." Lil burst out quickly.

"What?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, I like you. I've liked you ever since we were little, but never had the courage to say anything until now, and, well, you moved away, and, now that you're back, the more I look at you, the more I wanna be with you and take you to the Valentine's Day dance next month. So, would you… Please? Go with me?" Lil asked, smiling.

"I'd love to!" Said Jesse.

"But Jesse, I thought you liked Kimi." Said Zack.

"Well, I see that Kimi already has a boyfriend." Said Jesse.

"I do. It's Zack." Interrupted Kimi..

"Really? But what about Tommy?" Zack asked.

"Look, Tommy, if you haven't hung up on us, I'm sorry, but, but, I can't see you anymore. But I hope we can still be friends." Said Kimi.

Tommy just continued to breeze into the phone, speechless as to what had just happened. Kimi breaking up with him.

Figuring Tommy was waiting to say his piece until everyone had gone around and said something, Chuckie spoke up.

"Look, I'm sorry about everything. I'm sorry for running out on you on Saturday night. It's just, I'm tired of being drug into stupid situations that nearly get me killed, and, I'm sorry for blabbing Kimi and Zack's secret. It's just, a guy can only hold on to that stuff for so long, and, well, I just couldn't take it anymore. I hope you can forgive me Tommy because we've been friends forever and I was dumb to act the way I did the other night." Said Chuckie.

"And I'm sorry for being so sneaky with Kimi and all over the last few years. To be honest, I was planning to pledge my love to Kimi at that Emmica concert five years ago, but then, well, I moved away, ruining that plan before I could even attack it. And yes, I'll say it now while we're confessing the truths, Kimi didn't really go to Japan in the summer between our eighth and ninth grade years. She was visiting me, and while I never got her pregnant, we did have protected sex, and I managed to give her a hicky on her last night visiting." Said Zack.

"It's true. During your barmitsfa Tommy, I snuck off with Zack to an allie down the street when he and I were getting bored at your barmitsfa party, and we kissed, and told one another we loved one another. I should have just broken it off with you then, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings Tommy. And, yes, I went to visit Zack, and he gave me a hicky. And to cover up myself, I did work over that summer, at a frozen yogurt shop in Wheeling, that's why I was able to come home with some extra money in my pocket. But I feel just awful for lying to you guys over the last few years, and, I hope that eventually, you all can forgive me and we can all, well, just, be friends again." Said Kimi, nearly bursting into tears at this point.

Just then, Susie put her arm around Kimi to comfort her.

"I'm sure everyone will forgive you Kimi. And, Tommy, I know I haven't been around, seeing I've been busy with getting ready for my big All States performance next weekend, and, after that's all over, I'm going in to have my wisdom teeth out, as the dentist said they were all impacted, so they need to come out, but I still care about you guys a lot, and, I know I'm only going to be around here for a few more months before Angelica and I graduate, but just, hang in there Tommy and everyone, things will get better." Said Susie.

"Thanks Susie, that's, well, reassuring. As for the rest of you, I'm gonna have to think about it." Said Tommy.

"Oh, but Tommy, before you go, Jesse and I have spoken with Mister Salmon, and we've agreed to help fill in for you this upcoming weekend filming The Mystery of Edwin Drood, since you're absent." Said Zack.

"Yeah, Zack is filming on Thursday, I've got Friday, and some guy I didn't recognize with spiked black hair said he'd take Saturday." Said Jesse.

"Ah, I think I know who might have chosen Saturday. Mo, he's friends with Marcus, captain of the basketball team, and he's in film club." Said Tommy.

Just then, a nurse walked into Tommy's hospital room.

"It's time for dinner." The nurse said in the background.

"Look guys, I've gotta go." Said Tommy.

"Well, goodbye Tommy, I'll call you later on tonight?" Said Jesse.

"Yeah, talk to you later." Said Tommy, followed by a click, as the call was ended.

"Now, don't you all feel a lot better?" Jesse asked, putting his phone back into his backpack.

Before anybody could speak up, Gloria walked up behind Angelica, and tapped her on the shoulder. Angelica spun around to find her standing there.

"Were you spying on us?" Angelica asked.

"Yeah and now I know everything! Just wait till I tell Donna Jo, the gossop columnist of the school newspaper about all of this!" Said Gloria.

"Not so fast." Said Angelica.

"Oh come on Angelica, you know I have to do this." Said Gloria.

"Meet me in the allie after school tomorrow, I've got a better idea." Said Angelica, as she laughed, and she and Gloria left the group.

Just then, Nicole came down a sidewalk on pink rollerblades.

"Chuckie, where have you been? We were suppose to study at the library this afternoon for our upcoming Psychology test." Said Nicole.

"Oh, sorry sweetie, I'm coming." Said Chuckie, as he got up from the circle, running off in the direction of Nicole, and they headed out of the park towards the library.

A few minutes later, a purple car drove up. It was being driven by Brody, and it was a purple Honda sivic.

"Hey, Angelica, need a ride?" Brody called out from the car.

Angelica and Gloria, who had run through a grassy field, turned to see Brody's car.

"Uh, mind giving my friend a ride too?" Angelica asked.

"Only if she doesn't pick on us." Said Brody.

"I'll be good." Gloria said in her fake sweet tone, with a half smile.

"Just keep quiet mortal and maybe, we'll get you home in one piece." Whispered Angelica into Gloria's ear in a snappy tone.

Gloria kicked Angelica in the ribs, and the two of them, ran off towards Brody's car. They piled in, and Brody drove off.

"Well guys, it's growing late. Thank you for joining me this afternoon for this meeting. I'll see you tomorrow?" Said Jesse.

"Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow." Said Zack, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Susie, and Dil. Susie, Phil, Lil, and Dil all ran in the same direction, since they all lived near one another, and Zack walked Kimi home on his way to his apartment.

And well, this ends chapter 6. So, what else will happen? You'll have to wait, and find out, in chapter 7.


	7. Chapter 7, A Visit From Destiny, Part 1

Chapter 7, A Visit from Destiny, Part 1

Jesse POV

Three months have passed since I got all of my friends together and we all confessed those deep, dark secrets to one another. Within that time, Zack and mine's filming of The Mystery of Edwin Drood went well, Zack and Kimi tried out for parts in the musical Wicked, getting the parts they wanted, which were Glinda and Doctor Dillamond, I heard from Chuckie that Susie did really well at her All State's performance, and, she had a successful wisdom teeth removal. Chuckie passed his driver's test at the end of January, as did Phil and Lil sometime in late February. I did take Lil to the Valentine's Day dance on February 15, 2027, and we shared our first kiss. Even Phil and Dil started going to more stuff together, now that they had publicized that they were a homosexual couple. They didn't care if they got any strange looks from anybody, they were just happy to be together. And obviously, Chuckie took Nicole, and Zack took Kimi. Angelica took Brody, and, well, we were all happy, having a sweetheart in our lives. But poor Tommy. Being stuck in that hospital at Valentine's Day, with nobody to love. If anything, while his fractures finally healed by April Fools Day, emotionally, Tommy was a wreck.

Because of his recently becoming blind, and it happening in the middle of the school year, the school wasn't willing to get anything in place to adapt school for Tommy until the start of the next school year, causing Tommy to be stuck at home for the remainder of his tenth grade year. So even after he was out of the hospital, he sat around at home on the couch, watching movies on TV, and getting tutoring from a tutor the school managed to hire while he was in the hospital named Susan Herdsman, who continued to work with him after he was released from the hospital, so Tommy wouldn't fall behind in his studies, doing the work orally with him, reading the chapters in the textbooks to him, etc. Of course, because Tommy refused to get any work done on his own, even though Zack's aunt was coming over on weekends, and helping Tommy to learn how to use some speech program on the computer called JAWS, along with NVDA, Voice Over on his iPhone and iPad, and teaching him some basic Braille, Tommy was just, too depressed to want to do much else. Plus, on top of his becoming blind, he'd have these migraine headaches that would happen at random, and they were so bad, that he'd pass out for several hours, before they would disappear.

I also helped Zack fix up his Reptar skateboard, by taking several pieces of bright green duck tape, and putting them over the cracks.

"Just call me McGiver." I said, putting the last piece of duck tape on to the skateboard on that fine Saturday afternoon in early April..

"Wow, thanks Jesse." Said Zack with a smile, looking up at me.

"No problem, happy to help." I said.

"So, any plans for tonight?" Zack asked.

"Well, since Lil is going to have a sleepover at Kimi's, and she and I went out to the movies last night, I was thinking maybe you and I could pay Tommy a visit." I said.

"Tommy? I don't know. He hardly speaks to me when I go over there. I think he's still mad at me for all of the lying I did." Said Zack.

"Come on, please?" I begged.

"Oh all right fine, I'll come along." Said Zack, as we hopped on to his newly patched up Reptar skateboard and we headed off to Tommy's house.

When we got there, I saw Phil and Dil were in Phil's dad's car, pulling out of Phil and Lil's driveway, headed off to do something, which made me pleased because Tommy and Dil wouldn't be fighting over the TV, as seems as of late, they've been arguing a lot more since Tommy came home from the hospital.

We got to Tommy's house and I went and rang the doorbell. Several minutes passed, and Tommy answered the door. I'm guessing that even when you can't see, you know your way around your house, but I wasn't gonna ask any dumb questions.

"Who is it." Tommy asked from inside the door.

"Hi Tommy, it's Zack and Jesse." Said Zack.

"Oh, Hi." Tommy said glumly, as he opened the door and we followed him into his house.

For the first time, I noticed that Tommy had blue glass eyes where his real ones use to be.

"Hey, are those fake eyes?" I asked.

Tommy nodded, and turned away, like he didn't want me to see them. We all headed to the living room, and caught up on our lives. We all talked about how things were going with school, our dating life, and so on.

"Yeah, and Jesse even helped me fix up my Reptar skateboard!" Said Zack.

"That's nice." Tommy replied, sounding bored.

"Are you sure everything's ok with you Tommy? You don't seem like your normal self." I said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Would you guys stop worrying about me." Tommy snapped.

"You're not fine, my aunt gives me reports of how you're doing, and, she's right. You are depressed aren't you." Said Zack.

"No." Tommy snapped.

"Oh, go on ahead, live in denial then." I said.

"Denial? How would you like it if one day, everything was perfect, and then, the next, the wool was pulled over your eyes because you did something stupid, and now, you had no life, and no reason to live?" Said Tommy.

Zack and I just sat there for several minutes, pondering this thought.

"Well?" Tommy said, breaking the silence.

"Look, I'm sorry this has happened to you, but really, get on with your life already." I said.

"Why don't you two just get on with your lives and leave me alone." Tommy snapped.

"Alright fine, we're leaving. Come on Zack." I said, grabbing Zack's arm as we rushed out of Tommy's house, leaving him there, all alone.

Zack and I went to Zack's apartment, and we just hung out for the rest of the night by ourselves, trying to put Tommy out of our minds. Deep down though, I was really worried about Tommy, and I just hope he didn't do something else stupid, just because he was upset about everything. I know he's been upset about losing his sight, Kimi breaking up with him, and who knows what else, but really, like get over it already. Maybe I didn't completely understand what he was going through, but all I wanted to do was help him, and he wasn't reaching out for us.

Sometime the following day, I was still at Zack's eating lunch with him, when their house phone rang. Zack's aunt picked it up.

"Hello?" Said Aunt Celeste.

Some silence passed.

"Oh no!" Said Aunt Celeste.

More silence passed as Zack and I overheard from the other room, and Celeste was listening to the person on the other end of the phone.

"I'll tell Zack. And, give Tommy my love." Said Aunt Celeste before she hung up the phone.

I sort of knew what might be coming, but I was hoping I was wrong. Just then, Zack's aunt walked into the living room where Zack and I were on the couch and took a seat on a love seat across the way.

"That was Tommy's mom. She and Stu got home last night to find Tommy in the bathroom, cutting himself with a raiser. He's now in the psych ward at the hospital. So, keep Tommy in your prayers ok?" Said Aunt Celeste.

"We will." I said, after sitting for several minutes in shock.

I was surprised that Tommy would start cutting himself, but in some ways, I wasn't, after all he'd been through. By the way he was talking to us the night before, he sounded as if he wanted to throw his life away, and since I was one of the only friends that wasn't in any major beef with Tommy as of late, I had to find a way to help him. Little did I know my answer would be closer to my nose than I thought.

Another week had passed since Tommy cut himself and went into the psych ward. It was the weekend before April vacation, when my parents and I were having dinner together on that particular Friday night. Phil and Lil were off to Twin Canyon for the week, While Chuckie and Kimi went off to visit their paternal grandparents, leaving nobody to hang out with except Zack, Tommy and Dil, as Susie was busy getting things finished up to graduate from high school and go off to college.

"So, how goes school?" Laura asked.

"Fine mom. We've just been busy preparing for the stupid standardized testing called the CCAS." I said, taking another bite of chicken and dumplings.

"Ah, and when will the test be again?" Laura asked.

"The first week of June, right before senior week and before we all take our finals and finish up another school year." I said.

Just then, my dad walked in with the mail and put it down on the table.

"Welcome home honey." Said Laura.

"Got the mail, and look, here's a letter from your cousin Eric! It says, Dear aunt Laura and uncle Dana, I'm taking a break from exploring the world, and I've always wanted to come meet my cousin Jesse. I hear you recently moved back to Yucaipa, California, after being away for eleven years, and with the spring vacation around the corner, I thought this would be a perfect time to come and visit. My plane will arrive at 9:18 AM on Monday. See you soon!" Read Dana.

"Oh wow, I've always wanted to meet my cousin Eric. I hear he's done all sorts of stuff, including climbing Mount Everest!" I said.

"Did you also know your cousin is blind?" Laura asked.

"No, I didn't! What happened to him? Did he get into an accident like Tommy?" I asked.

"No. Your cousin, Eric Weihenmayer lost his sight at the young age of sixteen, to a rare eye disease called Juvenile Retinoschesis. He was losing his sight over time as a result of this disease, and it finally was completely gone by the time he reached the age of sixteen." Said Laura.

"So what did he do? Did he try to kill himself like what Tommy did last week?" I asked.

"Oh no, he's probably one of the bravest people I know." Said Laura, as she took some more rice from the bowl in the center of the table, and scooping it on to her plate.

Mom went on to tell me about the many accomplishments that my cousin Eric had done in his life. Climbing mount Everest, writing a book about his climb called Touch the Top of the World, and reaching the summits of several other peaks, as well as hiking the Grand Canyon, walking the length of the Great Wall of China, scailing the Andes mountains, and just recently, he completed his first Adidderod dog sled race in Alaska.

"And he's blind?" I asked again, in disbelief that my cousin had done all of this in his lifetime.

"Yes he is." Said Laura.

It was then that I got my big idea. The next day, I ran into Zack at the Java Lava, which was being run by a friend of Chaz and Kira's while they were away.

"I think if Tommy had a talk with my cousin, it would help him see that he's got something worth living for." I said to Zack, taking a sip of my mint frapichino.

"I don't know. I don't even know if Tommy is home from the hospital yet, as far as I know, nobody has heard from him since you and I went over there last weekend, and he was so rude to us." Said Zack.

"Yeah but maybe talking with someone who's also blind, will help. If you don't wish to help me with this, then I'll talk to my cousin Eric, who's arriving here tomorrow, and see if he's interested, and if he is, I'll see into tracking down Tommy, and getting the two of them together." I said.

"Ok, if you insist, then good luck, and, please do keep me posted." Said Zack, as he emptied his finished pineapple mango smoothie into the garbage, hopped on to his Reptar skateboard, and headed for home.

I had to tell Tommy about who was coming, but decided I'd wait until after I met Eric for myself, and saw if he would be interested in meeting Tommy. Wasn't up for causing any drama.

The next day, my parents and I went and picked up Eric at the airport. He was a tall man, with short brown hair, wearing a green button down shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes. Next to him, he had a guide dog, a golden retriever named Harriet.

"Eric, we're over this way." Said my mom Laura, as Eric came towards us at baggage claim.

"Aunt Laura. It's so wonderful to see you again!" Said Eric, giving my mom a hug.

"And this is my husband, your uncle Dana, and your cousin Jesse." Said my mom, as dad and I reached out to shake Eric's hand.

"It's nice to meet you cousin Eric." I said.

"Nice to meet you too Jesse." Said Eric.

Later, Eric and I were sitting on the porch swing in my backyard, when I told him about my friend Tommy. How he had recently gone blind as a result of an accident and was feeling quite suicidal and depressed lately, and could possibly use a role model to help cheer him up.

"I'd be happy to have a talk with him." Said Eric with a smile.

"I'm giving Tommy a call right now." I said, getting my Android phone out of my pocket, and giving Tommy a call. I called his cell first. It went straight to voicemail.

"You've reached Tommy. Please leave a message after the tone and I'll get back to you." Said Tommy's voice.

"At the tone, please record your voice message. When you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press pound for more options." Said the familiar Sprint robotic voice, followed by a beep.

"Hey Tommy, it's Jesse. Look, I have someone visiting me while I'm on April vacation who I'd like you to meet. Give me a call when you get this please. Call my cell. Thanks, bye." I said, disconnecting the call.

"Ah, you got his voicemail eh?" Eric asked.

"Yeah." I said.

I then tried Tommy's house. Maybe his phone was charging or something. Or he had another migraine and was passed out or something, so turned it off. The phone rang three times before Didi answered.

"Hello." Said Didi.

"Hi Didi, it's Jesse. Is Tommy there?" I asked.

"Yes, he's home from the hospital, but he's currently grounded." Said Didi.

"Oh no, what happened?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Well, upon getting home from the hospital, he found Dil snooping around in his room, and the two of them got into a huge argument, that resulted in Tommy ripping his door off of its hinges. Dil and Tommy are grounded until Saturday, but after that, I'll have Tommy give you a call." Said Didi.

"Oh, ok. Well, talk to you later then." I said, as I hung up the phone.

"Something wrong?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, Tommy's grounded. I didn't realize he was strong enough to pull a door off its hinges. I guess when you're angry enough, you'll do just about anything." I said.

"How long is he in for?" Eric asked.

"Til Saturday." I said.

"Well I'm not leaving til Sunday, so, we'll meet up with him on Saturday then." Said Eric.

"Sounds like a plan." I said, shaking Eric's hand.

End of Jesse POV

And, decided I'd split this up into two chapters, so, when Tommy and Eric finally meet. Or will they? And how will it go? The answers, will be revealed, in chapter 8.

Author's Note: I should point out that EricWeihenmayer is a real live person, who is blind from the disease mentioned, and has done many things. Everything is true about him in my story except the part about the Great Wall of China, scailing the Andes mountains, and running the Adidderod dog sled race. I made up those last three events there to bring out some extra flavor, though you never know, by the year 2027, those things could really happen in Eric's life, you never know. Nonetheless, don't know his real guide dog's name, so the dog is made up too, and, I made up the part about Jesse and Eric being related. I highly doubt they know one another in real life, let alone have even heard of one another. Also, for purposes of this being a ficticious story, debating if I want to make Eric a little bit younger, or keep his real character the way it is, which, since in reality, Eric was born in 1968, by the year 2027, he'd be 58-years-old, since it's April of 2027 at the time of my story, and Eric was born in September, making him turn 59 in September of that year. If I decide to make him slightly younger, it will be revealed in the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 8, A Visit From Destiny, Part 2

Chapter 8, A Visit from Destiny, Part 2

Tommy POV

For the past week, I had been grounded as a result of getting into a fight with my brother Dil, when I found him snooping around in my room upon my returning home from the hospital. He was reading a journal I had kept while I was dating Kimi, and while he claimed I wouldn't need it anymore because I couldn't see, I told him that wasn't true, but he kept arguing with me, and I got so mad, that I ripped the door off it's hinges, resulting in my getting grounded. Well it was finally Saturday, the day I'd be ungrounded, and get my freedom back, that is, if you could call it freedom. I spent most of my time, watching movies on the couch, sleeping, or working on some sort of adaptive technology to help me get use to my new way of life, a life that so far, was depressing to me, between going blind, losing Kimi, the love of my life, and not being able to go to school anymore, except to take the CCAS test at the end of the year, and sign up for next year's classes, I really didn't feel like I had anything worth living for anymore. That is, until I got a phone call that changed my life.

As a result of my accident, I also got frequent migraine headaches, that were really painful. The only thing that helped, was taking pain killers, and sleeping for several hours. I had gotten one of these horrible headaches the night before, passing out quite early on a Friday night, at roughly 7:30 PM, and awoke to my mom yelling up the stairs, stating that I had a phone call. Since I was ungrounded, I reached over to the cordless phone on my bed side table, and answered it.

"I've got it mom." I said, as she hung up the phone downstairs.

"Hi Tommy, it's Jesse." Said Jesse.

"Oh, Hi there." I said.

"So, how are you doing?" Jesse asked.

"Well, I passed out early the night before as a result of another painful migraine, but I'm feeling better today." I replied.

"Listen, you're ungrounded right? Called your house the other day and got your mom, who told me you were grounded." Said Jesse.

"Yeah, it's Saturday, and mom let me take this call, so yeah, I'm no longer grounded. What did you want anyway?" I asked.

"Would you be up for hanging out today? I've got someone visiting me who'd I'd like you to meet. He's my cousin Eric Weihenmayer, and like you, he's also blind." Said Jesse.

"Yeah right." I replied.

"No, really! He's blind, and has done a bunch of amazing stuff in the 58 or so years he's been alive!" Said Jesse.

"Wow really?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, and he'd love to meet you. Would you be interested?" Jesse asked.

I thought about it for several minutes. Other than Zack's aunt, I had never met anybody else who was blind, and I could tell Jesse was only trying to cheer me up. He had obviously heard of my suicide attempt, and having to spend a week in the hospital, plus, I was bored, so decided to go for it.

"Sure. I'll be ready in an hour." I said.

"Ok, Eric and I will be by in an hour to pick you up, and we'll head to the Java Lava for some lunch, and a chance for you and Eric to get to chat and know one another." Said Jesse.

"Ok, see you then." I said, hanging up the phone, and heading off to shower and get dressed.

In an hour, Jesse and Eric had arrived to pick me up. I was waiting outside for them when Jesse came up to me.

"Hey Tommy, you're looking good." Said Jesse.

"Thanks." I said, taking Jesse's elbow, as we walked down to the Java Lava.

When we got there, Jesse sat me down at a table, with Eric sitting across from me.

"So, Tommy, it's finally nice to meet you! My cousin Jesse has told me so much about you!" Said Eric.

I reached across the table and shook his hand.

"So, you're blind too?" I asked.

"Yeah. I have an eye condition called Juvenile Retinoschesis. It caused my vision to deteriorate over time when I was a child, and by the time I was sixteen, my sight was completely gone." Said Eric

"Oh wow, I'm really sorry. I know how you feel. I lost my sight back in January after getting into a stupid accident." I said.

"Hey, don't be sorry. If anything, I don't think of myself as blind." Said Eric.

"Really?" I asked.

"No, I try to live life to the fullest, and have done many things and gone on many adventures." Said Eric.

"Really? Tell me more." I said.

Eric went on to tell me about the story of his life.

"I was born on September 23, 1968, and I'm the only blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. I was honored with a Time Magazine cover story. I also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002, joining 150 mountaineers at the time who had accomplished that feat, but the only climber who was blind. In 2008, I also added Carstenz Pyramid in West Papua New Guinea, the tallest peak in Austral Asia, thus completing the more respected Seventh Summit. I have also made noteworthy climbs up the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite in 1996, and ascended Losar, a 2700-foot vertical ice face in the Himalayas which I ascended in two days, in 2008. I am the author of Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See, my memoir; and The Adversity Advantage, Turning Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness. As I was going blind from juvenile retinoschesis, I fought against using canes and learning Braille. I wanted to hang on to my life in the sighted world. I eventually turned to wrestling and became a prominent force in high school. I represented Connecticut in the National Junior Freestyle Wrestling Championship in Iowa. At age 16, I started using a guide dog. I tried rock climbing, and found I was a natural at scrambling up a face using my hands and feet to find holds. Then I attended Boston College and graduated with a double major in English and Communications. I became a middle-school teacher at Phoenix Country Day School. I also coached wrestling in Phoenix. My first big mountain was McKinley (Denali), in 1995. In 2004, with Sabriye Tenberken and six blind Tibetan teenagers, I climbed on the north side of Everest to 21,500 feet, higher than any group of blind people have ever stood. A documentary based on the project, Blindsight, was released in 2006, and you can check it out on Youtube. In 2005 I co-founded No Barriers USA ( /), which helps those with special challenges to live active and purposeful lives. The organization's motto is "What's Within You Is Stronger Than What's In Your Way!" Injured soldiers are a major focus of No Barriers USA. In 2011, my 3-person team competed on ABC's Expedition Impossible,[4] a race across the deserts and mountains of Morocco, finishing second. I has also completed the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race, at elevations above 10,000 feet, and Primal Quest, an adventure race over 460 miles with 60,000 feet of elevation gains. In September of 2014, I solo kayaked the Grand Canyon, 277 miles from Lee's Ferry to Pierce Ferry. Then in the year 2020, I scaled the Andes mountains, and in 2023, I walked the length of the Great Wall of China. In December of 2026, I completed the Adidderod dog sled races in Alaska, coming in in third place, receiving a special award for the first blind person to complete the race over a four day period. Today, while still adventuring, I am a prominent worldwide speaker, focusing on the topic of using adversity to advantage and living a "No Barriers Life." Explained Eric.

As I listened to Eric tell me the story of his life, I grew fascinated by his story, and was amazed by how much he had accomplished.

"So, you've done all of this, after you were blind?" I asked.

"Yep." Eric replied.

"But, how?" I asked.

"You just have to believe in yourself. Sometimes, it's not what the eye can see that's most important, but the other ways in which you can explore the world. What we feel what we smell. There's lots to explore beyond the boundaries of our backyards, and as you can see, I've touched several of those wonderous sights." Said Eric.

"You can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it, and my cousin Jesse tells me you've always been quite the adventurer. He told me that when you and him were little, you two went on adventures all of the time. Who says those have to stop because you're a teen and blind. Now's the time to really explore the world, and show the world what you're made of." Continued Eric.

"But it was during my last adventure that I got into the accident that left me blind." I said.

"So, maybe it was, but you can't let one little accident stop you, now, can you?" Eric asked.

"That accident changed my life forever. I was planning to be a movie director someday, filming movies in different places, not only seeing the world, but it would be captured in my films, making me millions." I said.

"Who says you still can't do that. Have you ever thought of being a documentarist?" Eric asked.

"Are you saying, making documentaries of my explorations?" I said eagerly.

"Yeah!" Eric replied.

Eric and I continued to talk all afternoon, as we split an order of onion rings at Burger Queen, and Jesse and I had a belching contest, drinking soda after soda, while Eric had a coffee. I went home that night, and thought about everything Eric had told me. I had always had a love for adventure and exploring the world, why should I let my recent disability stop me?

I let these thoughts and questions play over and over in my mind that night, as I drifted off to sleep.

End of Tommy POV

That night, Tommy had a dream. In the dream, he was in a desserted land scape on a bright sunny day, complete with fields of grass, a river, and a tall mountain. Tommy noticed that he had his super stretching abilities, but unlike in the reawl world, where he was blind, he had his full 20/20 vision back in his dreams. Just then, the keeper of dreams appeared before him. He was tall, wearing a dark blue robe, carrying a brown wand with a green glowing orb on one end.

"Why Tommy, I see you've entered the dream world, in search of your destiny." Said the keeper of dreams.

Tommy nodded.

"Well then, you must face the ultimate test, to see if adventuring and mountain climbing, as well as exploring the world, are indeed, your destinies for your future life. So, to prove your bravery and abilities, you must climb the tall mountain that stands behind me, and at the top, you must defeat Reptar's evil twin, Beptar." Said the keeper of dreams.

"You mean the giant purple dinosaur who looks just like Reptar only she has a blue tongue, is female, and is out to destroy the world, like in the most recent Reptar movie that came out at Christmas of 2026, Reptar versus his evil twin, and the last movie I took Kimi on a date to see before, well before Zack stole her away from me?" Tommy replied.

"Yes, you'll find Beptar at the top of the tall mountain, and if you don't destroy her, she'll destroy Reptar, and then destroy the entire world." Said the keeper of dreams.

"No problem, with my sight completely restored, and my stretching abilities, I can climb that mountain and beat Beptar, no problem." Tommy said.

"Ah, but you can't use your powers, and, while ordinarily, you have super powers in your dreams, along with your sight, I must restore you to your life in reality, and only if you climb this mountain and beat Beptar with nothing but your normal limitations, which include your blindness, will I, the keeper of dreams, restore your powers. Your friends will all be watching over you, but they are only here to spectate the event. While their powers won't be temporarily suspended, they are forbidden to use them to help you on your quest." Said the keeper of dreams.

Tommy thought it over for several minutes, and then, decided to accept the keeper of dreams' challenge.

"Ok, I accept your challenge." Said Tommy.

"You understand that your powers will remain suspended until you complete this task, and, if you cannot complete it in one dream time period, or, one night of sleep in the real world, this dream will continue to reoccur every time you're asleep, until you have proven yourself worthy?" Said the keeper of dreams.

Tommy nodded, agreeing to this.

"Then get ready, to meet reality in the dream world." Said the keeper of dreams, as the green orb on his wand turned a bright red, sending out red sparks at Tommy, circling him in red worlpools, taking his powers away, leaving Tommy in complete darkness.

"I will lead you to the mountain, but once I get you there, you're on your own." Said the keeper of dreams, taking Tommy by the hand, and walking him towards the mountain.

Just then, Zack and Jesse showed up, and purched themselves on a log near the mountain, to watch Tommy's climb, and Susie, Angelica, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Dil, and Chuckie, were all flying overhead, hovering in the air over the landscape, as they watched Tommy from a distance, being careful to not use any of their powers to help him.

"Are you ready Tommy?" Asked the keeper of dreams as he and Tommy approached the mountain.

"Yes, I sure am." Said Tommy confidently.

"Good luck young Thomas. May you find your destiny." Said the keeper of dreams, as he handed Tommy some rope, a sword, shield, knife, and a hose full of water, which Tommy put into a backpack he was carrying on his back, assuming these were weapons he could use to help him defeat Beptar. After handing Tommy the weapons, the keeper of dreams disappeared into a puff of smoke, as Tommy stood before the tall mountain.

"What you feel, what you smell. What you feel, what you smell." Tommy heard Eric's voice saying over and over to him in his head, as he reached out towards the cold, stone mountain, climbing carefully, gripping tight to the mountain with his hands, feeling every nick and cranny, as he made his way up the mountain.

"You can do it." Said Zack encouragingly from up above, as Tommy continued to make his climb, continuing slowly up the mountain.

At one point, Tommy slipped on an icy patch. Phil wanted to use his fire powers to melt the ice, and Chuckie wanted to use his super strength to help Tommy up the rest of the way, but they relented when they remembered what the keeper of dreams had told them before Tommy appeared, they couldn't use their powers to help him.

Tommy continued his climb, passing many slippery patches, slimy swomps, and getting nearly drenched in water when he fell into a small whole filled with water on a ledge that was further up the mountain. But he didn't let this stop him. He felt around till he found a way out of the whole, continuing to climb up the mountain, until he reached the top. Once he reached the top, he heard a loud roar.

"That must be Beptar." Tommy thought, as he stepped on the peak of the mountain, face to face with the tall purple dinosaur, who was breathing a hot, firy breath. Tommy felt the warmth of the breath, and smelled the smoke.

Just then, the dinosaur stopped, Tommy reached out towards the dinosaur as it clawed his hands.

"Outch." Tommy cried, upon receiving the wound.

But he wasn't going to let that stop him. He reached out and got a hold of Beptar's waste, grabbing hold. Her waste was big around, so Tommy came in close, hugging Beptar tight, as he thrust his body against her's.

Beptar pushed him back, almost pushing Tommy off the mountain, but Tommy crouched down when he noticed one of his feet was dangling off of the mountain, putting both hands down, as he regained his footing. At this point, he pulled his backpack off, and took out the weapons that were handed to him prior to beginning his climb up the mountain. He took out the sword, and lunged towards the sound of Beptar's roar, this time, poking the sword into Beptar's stomach. The dinosaur roared in pain, as Tommy continued to poke harder into her stomach. Just then, Beptar grabbed at Tommy's throat, but Tommy let go of the sword and grabbed the shield he had clipped on to his pants pocket, batting at Beptar's arm, getting her to loosen her grip. Then, she sent a ball of fire in his direction. Tommy ducked, grabbing at the hose, and squirting water up above his head, in hopes he would put out Beptar's firy breath, thus, destroying her. Beptar coughed as the water put out her firy breath, and Beptar collapsed on top of the mountain.

Using all of his weight, Tommy lunged in towards the fallen dinosaur, and gave it a good kick, sending it flying off the mountain, and down towards a raging river, where it landed, and dround.

Suddenly, it was silent around Tommy, after a splash was heard when Beptar fell into the river down below. Then, it hit Tommy. His mission wasn't complete. He had to climb back down the mountain to finish the mission. So he slowly felt around, as he started his climb back down the mountain, thinking about how things felt on his way up, being careful to only land on dry patches of mountain on his climb back down. He continued to inch his way down the mountain, till eventually, he felt his feet touch the grassy ground down below.

Upon reaching the ground. He heard several claps and cheers from his friends. Kimi, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Angelica, Susie and Dil all flew in and gave Tommy a group hug, and Zack and Jesse came over to join in the group hug, as they celebrated Tommy's victory.

Just then, the keeper of dreams along with Peter of the confederacy appeared before them.

"I'm very proud of you Tommy." Said Peter of the confederacy.

"Who are you?" Jesse asked.

"Ah yes, you probably don't remember me, as our paths haven't crossed since you were the age of four and left Yucaipa for Scotland, but I'm Peter, king of the confederacy." Said Peter, standing tall and proud in his gray confederate uniform.

"Congratulations Tommy. You have proven yourself worthy of facing any challenge that should come your way in the real world, and gained the ability to venture out and explore the world, despite your recent blindness." Said the keeper of dreams.

"Yes, I sure have." Said Tommy.

"But before you return to the real world, I shall not only restore you to your supernatural self in the dream world, but may I please see Zack and Jesse?" Said the keeper of dreams.

Tommy, Zack, and Jesse all stepped forward, as the green orb on the dream keeper's wand started to glow a bright green, sending worlpools of green rings swirling around Tommy, Zack, and Jesse.

"For those of you who don't know, let me remind you all of what powers each one of you possesses. Chuckie has super strength, Kimi has the ability to turn invisible, Angelica has claws, that are able to penetrate through any surface, as well as regeneration abilities, and super imposed senses, Phil has fire powers, Lil has ice powers, Susie can make herself larger or smaller, and Dil has telescopic powers, being able to levitate objects. Peter has a combination of the fire and telescopic powers, and Tommy, I shall restore your stretching powers, along with the ability to see in your dreams, and Zack and Jesse, I give you the following powers. Zack, you have the ability to turn into any animal, person, or object, as well as the ability to age younger or older at any given time, and Jesse, you have the ability to penetrate through any solid surface, as well as the ability to breethe under water. And, just like your friends, all of you have the ability to fly, but whatever your powers are, they will only work in the dream world. You cannot use them under no circumstances in the real world, because they will simply, not work. But in the real world, you don't need your super powers, and do you know why? Because in the real world, you have brains, courage, and a heart, the three elements that when used, you can make any dream, become a reality. And so, Tommy, it's time for me to send you and your friends back to the real world, to make your dreams, a reality. Go discover your destiny in the real world, and good luck, as I know you can do this. Just believe in yourself, and listen, to your heart." Said the keeper of dreams, as he disappeared into a cloud of smoke, and Tommy awoke in bed.

Tommy lay awake for a while, thinking about the recent dream he had. He felt the happiest he had felt in weeks, knowing that if he could conquer any obstical in his dreams, and explore the world and defeat the enemies, then who says he couldn't live up to Eric's way of life in the real world. From that day forward, Tommy decided to not think of himself as blind, but simply, a guy who would see in different ways, and upon graduating from high school, he would explore the territory of the world explored by Jesse's cousin Eric, and much, much more.

Tommy told Dil and his parents about this at breakfast the next day, and his family was very proud of him for having these ambitions. He felt so good about his revelation, that he had to call up his friends and tell them. But he decided to get out his iPhone 14S, and send a massive text using Voice Over to his friends, asking them all to come over. Because it was a Sunday, nobody showed up until that afternoon, but he told them, apologized for the way he had been acting lately, and everybody forgave him, giving Tommy a group hug.

That night at dinner, Stu and Didi brought up to Tommy that they were thinking of sending Tommy off to Perkins next year to finish his high school career, but Tommy stood up at the table, and said the following.

"I will not go to Perkins." Protested Tommy.

"And why not?" Didi asked.

"Because Perkins is a school for blind loser cowards who can't bother to handle real life. But I am no loser, rather, I'm a winner, and I will not stand to be separated from my friends just because I'm different. I will continue to live my life as I always have, making sure I don't do something else stupid, but even if I should, I'll learn to live with the consiquences of my actions, and face life, head on, just as I always have, and I always will." Said Tommy with confidence, as he sat back down at the dinner table, to finish the bowl of soup that was in front of him.

His parents and brother applauded his willingness to stand up for himself, and sure enough, Tommy did go back to school in June of 2027, to sign up for classes for his junior year, and to take the CCAS test with the help of someone to read the test to him, along with another person, who acted as a scribe, writing down Tommy's answers. They also had a meeting with his future teachers and Principal Johnson, and got some special services set up for Tommy, like mobility, a teacher for the visually impaired, and someone to adapt his work for him, which he would eventually, meet all of these special people during his summer vacation between his sofamore and junior year.

End of Actual Story

Author's Notes: I should point out that Peter, as well as the dream world of supernatural powers, were all characters and ideas thought up by TCKing12, as displayed in his Dream Chronical series. And, if you think we're finished, not quite. Be looking for an epilogue to this story, coming soon. And, as you can see, I left Eric at the age he is in real life, and had this been a real Rugrats, AGU episode, Eric Weihenmayer, would have gotten to play himself, in other words, his voice would have played his character in the episode.


	9. Chapter 9, Epilogue

Chapter 9, Epilogue

Author's Notes: I'm very sorry for the delay in getting this final chapter posted. Between a hair appointment and spending time with my nephew on Wednesday, playing PM and story catch up on Fan Fiction yesterday, ending my day with a terrible headache, and having to go to the eye doctor's this morning, followed by a lovely lunch at Panera Breads with my mom, sister-in-law and nephew, it's taken me this long to get to this chapter, but it's finally here, and so, let's get started!

Jesse POV

It was June 1, 2027. I was walking Tommy to school, on his first day back, after being absent for over four months, as a result of the accident he had back in January, right around the time I returned to Yucaipa, California. Tommy and I grew rather close since I introduced him to my cousin Eric, and they discovered just how much they really had in common, but sadly, due to all of the other events that had taken place, in particular, that secret love triangle that Kimi was involved in along with Tommy and Zack for so long, Tommy and Zack's relationship wasn't as strong anymore, and Zack and Chuckie were seen hanging out more together since the secrets were revealed, opposed to the dynamic once diaper duo of Tommy and Chuckie.

"So Tommy, explain to me about this Beepball thing again?" I asked, as we continued on our long walk to school, on this beautiful sunny morning in early June.

"Beepball is much like baseball but with a few differences, and it's designed for the blind and visually impaired." Explained Tommy.

"Go on then." I said encouragingly.

"Beep baseball is played on a grass field with 6 fielders (generally a first-baseman, third-baseman, shortstop, left fielder, right fielder, and center fielder, though two-four defensive sets are not unheard-of) and 1 or 2 "spotters" from one team, and the pitcher, catcher, and batter from the other team. Fielders and batter are blindfolded. There is also a D.H. and D.F. which is short for designated fielder. They must also be legally blind in most cases. However, the NBBA has a rule that, if a team cannot field the minimum six batters required to fill its lineup card, it may opt to allow up to two sighted volunteers to blindfold themselves and play as the visually impaired players do. Catcher, pitcher, and spotters do not wear blindfolds and are usually sighted, although there have been a few who are partially blind. The ball beeps and is a modified, and oversized, softball. The bases are blue, nearly 5 feet or 1.5 meters) tall, and have mostly foam interior with the electronics that cause it to buzz steadily when a switch is thrown. They are each placed 100 feet or 30 meters from homeplate and are in the equivalent positions to first and third bases in regular baseball. When the batter hits the ball, a base operator turns on one of the two bases (first or third) for the batter to run to. If the batter touches the base before a fielder can pick up the ball, the offensive team scores a run. It takes 4 strikes for a batter to be out. If the ball goes beyond the two base lines or doesn't travel at least 40 feet or 12 meters, it is foul and counted as a strike unless it is the potential fourth strike, when the batter just swings again. If a batted ball travels at least 170 feet in the air over fair territory before settling, it is, upon declaration of the umpire, a home run. If the ball ceases to beep, or if it hits the pitcher, and becomes a "dead ball" the strike count is reset and the batter swings again. A dead ball must not be touched. If it is, it is said to be back in play and the runner must be put out. The spotter or spotters call out a number to signify which part of the field a ball is travelling towards. Generally, the middle of the outfield is labeled 6, and either side, left and right, is numbered one to five in a mirroring pattern. The spotter must not say anything beyond the numbered region on the field, and two spotters cannot make a call on the same play. If either case occurs, the run scores. The fielders head towards that section and listen for where the ball is specifically, often diving to the ground to get it. When a fielder picks up the ball before the batter reaches the base, the batter is out. In the rare event a fielder catches the ball in the air before it touches the ground or other items, the side is automatically retired and the next half-inning commences. The spotter must also watch to ensure that nobody collides." Explained Tommy.

"So I'm guessing Beepball like baseball, has nine innings then?" I asked.

"Beep baseball generally has 6 innings. The extra innings rules used in major league baseball generally apply to beep baseball. If one team is up by twelve or more runs, the other team has the opportunity to have short innings in which the losing team bats every inning and the winning team fields. This is known as the twelve-run rule, and when it occurs, one team is said to "twelve-run" another. If the other team makes up the difference, then the team that had been winning gets back all their missed at-bats." Tommy continued to explain eagerly.

"Are there any age limits?" I asked.

"Nope, There are no age or gender-based restrictions in beep baseball; people as old as 70 and as young as 12 have played." Explained Tommy.

"Oh wow, that sounds so cool!" I said excitedly.

"Yeah! And this summer, I'm gonna get the opportunity to play for the Bay Area Microchips!" Said Tommy.

"But I thought you didn't want anyone to know of your blindness." I said.

"Well, wherever I can participate in activities with my sighted peers, with no adaptations, well, yeah. But I have to face facts. Maybe I'm different, but I'm not gonna let my differences make me look weak. I'll just, have to do some things differently, and if people can't accept me for who I am, then that's their problem. And besides, my therapist, who I started seeing after that suicide attempt back in April suggested that I try to get to know some other blind and visually impaired people around my age, and my family and I thought playing Beepball would be a good social outlet for me to do this in." Continued Tommy, as we arrived at the school.

Forgetting that on the first day of the CCAS test, it was also senior prank day, I was quite horrified by the site I saw when I entered the school building.

"I'm glad you can't see any of this Tommy." I said to him, as we walked through the back halls of the school towards our lockers.

"Why's that?" Tommy asked.

I went on to explain to him that the halls were lined with dead animals, fire hoses, and strings of toilet paper hanging from the ceiling. But the worst of it was in the lobby of the school. Tommy noticed it before I did.

"I notice it smells like pancake syrup and vomit. What's going on here?" Tommy asked, as he started to cough up vomit himself, turning the already existant pile of vomit green, which told me he still ate Reptar cerial for breakfast, as it turned vomit as well as milk green, but I just kept my mouth shut on that one.

"Sounds to me like a senior prank gone bad." I said, as Larson, a large kid with a crewcut walked up to Tommy carrying poop in his hand.

End of Jesse POV

"Hey, Pickles, I see you're back from the dead." Said Larson, as he stuck the piece of poop in Tommy's face.

"Yuck, why are you sticking poop in my face Larson?" Tommy snapped.

"Ah, so you do know the difference." Larson said rudely.

"Look Larson, I may be blind, but I'm not stupid, even if it was my own stupidity that caused my blindness, I've wisened up over the few months I've been absent. And the fact that you and your dumb senior friends made me lose my breakfast, well, I'll be telling Principal Johnson and you won't get away with this." Tommy protested.

"Oh yeah Pickles? We'll just see about that." Said Larson, as he punched Tommy in the stomach.

Tommy and Larson continued to fight amongst the vomit and pancake syrup in the lobby, as a crowd of people stood around the edge, spectating. Out of these people, Angelica, Savanna, Brody, Gloria, several other seniors, Marcus, Mo, and Susie were all watching the brawl go down between Tommy and Larson.

"Fight fight fight." Cheered on a crowd of seniors.

"Stop it!" Shouted Susie.

Just then, Phil, Lil, Kimi, Zack, Nicole, Chuckie and Dil all showed up next to Jesse to see what was going on.

"Hey! Nobody messes with my friend!" Shouted Chuckie.

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Added Zack, as Chuckie and Zack jumped into the middle of the fight between Tommy and Larson, getting covered in vomit in the process, causing Chuckie to throw up, only making the mess worse, causing several of the other seniors watching to throw up.

Just then, a bunch of teachers along with Principal Johnson showed up and stopped the fight. Noticing Chuckie and Zack were the most covered in vomit, as well as some blood, as Larson had managed to kick Tommy in the legs hard with a shoe, causing Tommy's leg to get cut, sending blood everywhere, Principal Johnson spoke up.

"Pickles, Finster, Wehrenberg, and Larson, to my office, now!" Yelled Principal Johnson, as he went to the door of his office, only to discover he couldn't open it.

"Ok students, what is the meaning of this?" Principal Johnson shouted.

"Look sir, don't suspend me, Chuckie or Zack for this. Larson started it, and Chuckie and Zack were only trying to stop the fight and save me." Said Tommy.

"No worries, just head to the nurse's office, provided it hasn't been super glued shut by any seniors who thought it would be funny to metal with school property." Demanded Principal Johnson.

Tommy, Zack, Chuckie and Larson all headed off in the direction of the nurse's office, while Principal Johnson tried to get an answer out of the other spectating seniors. When nobody spoke up, the principal went on to explain that because everybody's CCAS tests were in his office, which he couldn't get to because thanks to some senior, it was super glued shut, school would have to be canceled for the rest of the day, while they saw to getting the door unstuck, and the mess made in the halls cleaned up. But upon exiting the school, Principal Johnson overheard Gloria make a comment to Angelica about how thankful she was for having Angelica sneak her into the school the previous night after the end of the year chorus, concert band, and jazz band concert with the super glue, so she could super glue shut the main office, in her attempt to cancel school forever. Well, everybody left the school at that point, heading home to shower off, and enjoy a day of freedom, that is, everybody except Angelica and Gloria, who were overheard by Principal Johnson. They spent the day cleaning up the mess made in the halls, and because Gloria was a freshman, and it was against the rules to get anybody other than seniors involved in setting up a senior prank, Gloria was expelled, and Angelica was suspended from all senior week activities, except for the prom and after party, since those two events were sure to have plenty of chaperones at them, not to mention, Angelica's parents were on the after prom committee, providing the majority of the funds towards the Yucaipa High After Prom Party for the class of 2027, which was no surprise, with Charlotte being head of a big corperation, bringing in a ton of money each month to afford such a luxurious party for her soon to be graduating daughter.

As for other events that took place to wrap up the 2027 school year, after Tommy's defeat of Larson in the fight that went down on senior prank day, Coach Herbert of the Wrestling Team saw how well Tommy did in his match against Larson, and offered him the position of captain if he joined the wrestling team his junior year, and Tommy accepted, once he found out that Gloria wouldn't be there, after her recently being expelled from Yucaipa High for getting involved in senior prank, and causing the CCAS test to be pushed back a day. By the following day though, everybody went and took their CCAS test for the rest of the week, and everybody passed except for Phil, who failed the math section, so he would undergo a retake sometime in the fall of his junior year in November of 2027, in hopes to pass the test, attending the CCAS study sessions after school once school started up again in September, to help him prepare for the retake.

As for the graduating seniors of Susie and Angelica, in terms of the prom, Angelica took Brody, while Susie took some senior that Jesse only knew because he was in the chorus, some guy by the name of Paul, who also made All State chorus that year as a base.

As far as graduation was concerned, the gang attended the high school graduation ceremony to see Susie and Angelica graduate, and Susie received a plaque for outstanding vocalist performer. Susie's family was taking her on a trip to New York City to see the reproduction of Me and My Gal that she always wanted to see as her graduation present, so the only one to have a graduation party was Angelica, which only her cousins, Tommy and Dil attended, along with Savanna, Brody, and several other seniors, excluding Larson, who was originally invited, but when Stu and Didi found out that he and their son Tommy were in a fight, Stu said he'd never speak to Drew again if he let Larson come to his daughter's graduation party, and while they hardly ever got along anyway, they figured with Angelica graduating, and Tommy adapting to being blind, not to mention, with their step mom and biological dad being in critical condition at the nursing home, now wasn't the time for any silent treatment, thus, everyone agreed that Larson wasn't allowed at the graduation party, keeping Angelica's party, relatively clean, and non-violent.

As for everybody else, all things were in place for Tommy's classes beginning his junior year, and not only did Tommy join the wrestling team, but he was also gonna take up swimming and rock climbing, in hopes to get in shape to start some expiditions either in the summer between his junior and senior year, or post graduating from high school in the summer of 2029, and due to his blindness, he dropped out of film club, but after getting to catch the DVD releases of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and hearing how well Zack's performance went in Wicked, he promoted Zack to take his place as President of the Yucaipa film club, as Zack decided he really liked film club, and this would start upon beginning their junior year of high school, but even Jesse took a liking to continuing the club, and with his knowledge of graphic art and design, Jesse agreed to be Vice President, helping to improve the menus on the DVD's of any future plays to be released during his junior and senior years of high school, securing a President and Vice President for the next two years. Angelica would go off to Harvard in the fall of 2027 to study law, and Susie went off to Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts to study music, Brody went off to work with his dad as an electrician doing an apprenticeship, eventually getting his license to become an electrician, and Paul, continued his job over the summer as a bus boy at the Candle Light Inn, and in the fall, he would go off to Berkley, University to study physics.

And as for the rest of the gang, in terms of their summer between their sofamore and junior year in terms of Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi, Zack and Jesse, and the summer in between their freshman and sofamore year for Dil and Lance, well, that story, is for another day.

The End

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed that story. Be looking for more stories from the Rugrats, coming soon.


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